Man Beat, Hogtied 4-Year-Old Indianapolis Boy Before Death

Advertising

An autopsy conducted on Saturday indicated a 4-year-old Indianapolis boy died from a fractured skull. Police say that Courtney Simpson brought her son, Elijah Simpson, 4, to Community East Hospital on Friday after she found him unresponsive. However, Elijah was dead before he arrived at the hospital.

Police say that he had been hogtied and beaten by Courtney's boyfriend, Christopher Montgomery and that she told them that they were disciplining the boy for sucking his thumb.

Originally, Simpson told police that the boy's older brother tied him up with a shoelace at a motel room, but she recanted her story after further questioning. She said that that Montgomery hit Elijah in the head and then used a drawstring from a hooded sweatshirt to restrain him.

"He (Montgomery) threatened her -- told her that if she went to the hospital, he was going to kill her and the kids before the police got there," said Lawrence Simpson, the boy's grandfather. "He (Elijah) was just a little light. He was a child. I miss him right now. Everything's going to work out."

Montgomery was being held in connection with unrelated robbery warrants, was charged with murder. The boy's mother faces charges of neglect of a dependent. Her other son, a 5-year-old boy, was taken into protective custody.