REMEMBERING AIDEN

Aiden Bunch was only three months old when he died. At three months, Aiden was still at the very beginning of his life. He depended completely on the adults around him to feed him, comfort him, hold him gently and recognize when he needed help. He had no way to protect himself from injury and no words to tell anyone when he was hurting. The public record tells us frustratingly little about Aiden's personality or the small everyday details of his short life. I am not going to manufacture those details simply to make his story sound fuller. What we do know is that Aiden was a baby whose life should have been measured in decades rather than months. Instead, at only three months old, he suffered a devastating brain injury and was taken to St. Louis Children's Hospital. Doctors would discover that the injury that brought Aiden to the hospital was not the only trauma his tiny body had experienced.

AIDEN’S STORY

Aiden lived in the Festus, Missouri area with his family. His father, Cody Bunch, was twenty one years old when the events that led to Aiden's death occurred. On January 6, 2015, Aiden suffered a traumatic brain injury while in his father's care. Cody initially told authorities that he had been carrying Aiden when he fell, causing the baby to strike his head. Aiden was taken for medical treatment and ultimately admitted to St. Louis Children's Hospital. His condition was critical. As doctors examined him, they found evidence that raised concerns far beyond a single accidental fall. Medical personnel reportedly identified evidence of seven previous injuries. Those findings led investigators to suspect that Aiden had been hurt before the injury that brought him to the hospital. Aiden's brain injury was catastrophic. For four days, doctors worked to care for him. On January 10, 2015, Aiden was removed from life support. He died at three months old. Six days later, on January 16, authorities charged Cody Bunch with felony child abuse resulting in death. He was jailed on a $500,000 cash only bond.

WARNING SIGNS

Aiden's medical examination reportedly revealed evidence of seven previous injuries. Gor a child who had lived for only three months, that finding was deeply concerning. Those injuries suggested that the trauma associated with Aiden's final hospitalization was not necessarily the first time he had been hurt. However, I have not found reliable documentation showing that Missouri child protection authorities had received reports concerning Aiden before January 6, 2015, or that an agency had previously investigated his safety. For that reason, Aiden's page should not characterize his death as a documented child welfare system failure. The warning signs became apparent through the medical evidence discovered after his final injury. By then, Aiden was already critically hurt.

JUSTICE FOR AIDEN

After doctors discovered evidence of previous injuries and investigators examined the circumstances surrounding Aiden's traumatic brain injury, authorities arrested his father. On January 16, 2015, Cody Bunch was charged with felony child abuse resulting in death. He was held in the Jefferson County Jail on a $500,000 cash only bond. The reliable public sources I have located establish the charge against Cody, but I have not yet located a Missouri court judgment or similarly reliable source establishing the final disposition of that criminal case. Because a criminal charge is not the same thing as a conviction, Abuse Angels should not give Cody a conviction or sentence that we cannot document.

FOREVER REMEMBERED

Aiden had been alive for only three months. He should have had an entire childhood ahead of him. There should have been first words and first steps. There should have been birthdays, school pictures and years in which the people who loved him discovered who he was becoming. Instead, much of what survives publicly about Aiden comes from police reports, criminal allegations and descriptions of injuries found on his tiny body. That is an unfairly small record of a life. Aiden was more than the evidence doctors found. He was more than the four days he spent critically injured in a hospital. He was more than a criminal case carrying his father's name. He was a baby boy whose life mattered before anyone outside his family ever knew his name. At three months old, Aiden could not tell anyone what had happened to him. He depended entirely on adults to recognize his needs and keep him safe. He deserved gentle hands. He deserved protection. He deserved the chance to grow from a three month old baby into the person he would have become. Aiden never received that chance. His life was extraordinarily short. His name does not have to disappear with it. Abuse Angels remembers Aiden Bunch. Remembered. Honored. Never Forgotten.