If you are concerned about a child being neglected or abused, call Maine’s 24-hour hotline at 800-452-1999 or 711 to speak with a child protective specialist. Calls may be made anonymously. For more information, visit https://www.maine.gov/dhhs/ocfs/cw/reporting_abuse.shtml.
Documents that were revealed in court on Tuesday suggest that alarms were raised about 3-year-old Makinzlee Handrahan’s living conditions just months before the girl was found dead on Christmas Day last year.
On Christmas morning of 2022, dispatchers received a 911 call after Handrahan stopped breathing. Deputies arrived at the home on Route 1 in Edgecomb, where Makinzlee was found unresponsive.
The toddler’s death was ruled a homicide after an autopsy was conducted by the Maine medical examiner’s office, and on Oct. 6, 2023, 29-year-old Tyler Witham-Jordan was arrested and charged with murder in connection with her death.
The Edgecomb man, who had been in a relationship with Makinzlee’s mother at one point in time, made his first court appearance on Tuesday, when a police affidavit was unsealed.
The document suggests that daycare workers noticed Makinzlee had bruises, scrapes and other injuries and requested an investigation by the Department of Health and Human Services in October of 2022, the Portland Press Herald reported.
A DHHS spokesperson declined to offer details on the investigation on Tuesday citing confidentiality laws, but the Portland newspaper reported that Henry Handrahan, the toddler’s father, had said the child was examined by two different doctors who did not find evidence of abuse.
Court documents suggest that when emergency personnel saw Makinzlee on Christmas Day, the girl was covered in bruises. Her cause of death was ruled blunt force trauma, and according to the medical examiner, she had suffered internal injuries.
The accounts of the scene where the toddler were found also suggest that a broken hairbrush with both Makinzlee and Witham-Jordan’s DNA on it was recovered from the room.
Witham-Jordan is believed to have been suffering an opioid withdrawal at the time that Makinzlee received the fatal injuries, but details were not immediately clear in court Tuesday.
The mother of the slain toddler requested a protection from abuse order against Witham-Jordan two days after her daughter’s death. The judge granted a temporary order the same day. The BDN is not naming the mother because she is allegedly the victim of abuse.
In the application filed in Wiscasset District Court, the mother asked for protection for herself, two children, ages 7 and 9, and a dog. She did not mention Makinzlee in the request. She described Witham-Jordan as a dating partner who formerly or presently lived in the same household. She also described him as “verbally, mentally, and physically abusive.”
The protection order was dismissed by a judge at the mother’s request two weeks later, according to the Portland Press Herald.
Witham-Jordan is being held at the Two Bridges Jail in Wiscasset on $250,000 bail. If he makes bail, he will not be allowed contact with any person under 16, and can not use drugs or alcohol.
