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Family friends speak out after couple is charged in 2016 death of infant daughter

Posted at 9:19 AM, Jul 20, 2019
and last updated 2019-07-20 11:19:12-04

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    CUMBERLAND COUNTY, Pa. (WPMT) — 29-year-old Derrick Yohe and 27-year-old Emily Kirby have been charged in connection to the 2016 death of their 6-month-old daughter.

Yohe faces a wide range of charges including criminal homicide and two counts of aggravated assault.

Kirby has been charged with endangering the welfare of children and aggravated assault.

Police say the infant girl was in cardiac arrest when paramedics arrived at the couple’s Silver Spring Township home back in 2016.

The baby later dying at the hospital.

Toxicology reports are now revealing another side to the story.

According to the Cumberland County Coroner’s office the baby likely died after ingesting marijuana and suffocating on vomit.

Court documents show Yohe and Kirby admitted to police they smoked marijuana at the home multiple times a day.

In October 2016 during an interview with Cumberland County Children & Youth Services the couple also admitted to making marijuana-infused brownies the day the child died.

“I’m not speculating but this baby couldn’t walk yet it couldn’t get up and go to the kitchen and say I think I’ll have a brownie, that’s just not the way it works,” said Skip Ebert, Cumberland County District Attorney.

At the time, no charges had been filed.

When District Attorney Skip Ebert took office in 2018, he says he decided to dig a little deeper.

“This was still open and I assigned a special units prosecutor to review the entire case again,” said Ebert.

It wasn’t until January of this year that the office received additional reports from the Cumberland County Coroner showing there was also a traumatic brain injury prior to the baby’s death.

“The iron stains were positive in the eye meaning days weeks or months before the child died she had received a traumatic brain injury,” said Ebert.

Court Documents show while walking through the home police finding clutter, dirty clothes laying around and cat feces on the floor.

The child’s mother also admitted to police that she smoked marijuana while pregnant.

“It just really upsets me because I never thought Emily would do something like this,” said Kristin Scott, family friend. “They would take the baby on walks and play outside with her and everything,” she added.

“They seemed perfectly fine behind closed door you couldn’t really tell if anything was going on or not but when they were around people they seemed like one of the best couples I knew and I was happy to call them my friends,” said Dawson Kirkland, family friend.

Derrick Yohe and Emily Kirby are both at Cumberland County Prison.

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