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Preliminary autopsy: Trauma caused girl's death
Four-year-old died Friday
Madellyn "Maddy" Rogers
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
By DEBBIE HALL - Bulletin Staff Writer
Blunt force trauma caused the Friday death of a young girl who was struck in the head by a falling pole, according to preliminary autopsy results released Monday.
Henry County Sheriff Lane Perry said the final report from the Medical Examiner’s Office in Roanoke on the death — considered an accident — is pending the results of toxicology tests, and “we still consider this under investigation.”
However, “there were no injuries discovered during the autopsy that were inconsistent with the report and statements” of witnesses, the sheriff said.
The girl, identified by Wright Funeral Service as 4-year-old Madellyn“Maddy” Rogers, was playing with about a half dozen children Friday evening near a mobile home on Lees Ridge Road when the children tried to move a wooden pole lying on the ground, police have said.
The pole was too heavy for the youngsters to move, and it fell and struck the girl on the head, police have said.
Sheriff’s Capt. Ricky Walker has said the wooden pole was about 9 feet long, 8 inches in diameter at one end and 9 inches in diameter at the other end. He has said it seemed to be a section of a utility pole lying at the edge of the yard, but investigators did not know why it was there.
A family member took the girl to Memorial Hospital in Martinsville, where she received treatment and later was pronounced dead, police have said.
Maddy was the daughter of Billy James Rogers and Whitney Page Wells Rogers of Martinsville, according to obituary information from Wright Funeral Service.
No other children were hurt in the incident.
Perry asked anyone with information that may be useful to the investigation to call the sheriff’s office at 638-8751.
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