MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Hickory Hill mother breaks down to WREG. She’s having to bury her two-year-old daughter while the child’s father is being blamed for her death.
“I still don’t know what happened,” said Lyric’s mother Veronica McGee.
What she does know: Lyric’s father, Christopher Presley, was watching the toddler last week while McGee was recovering from a Lupus relapse.
When she checked in on Lyric, everything seemed fine.
That was until Friday when she found out her little girl was being flown to Le Bonheur.
“I get to Le Bonheur, and I see my baby laid out on a stretcher. They are sticking tubes in her and trying to pump her and bring her back to life,” said McGee. “I asked the doctor like ‘how severe is this?’ He was like ‘well, Lyric is not getting oxygen to the brain.'”
Presley had told doctors the toddler strangled herself with a belt at his home, but doctors said that story didn’t add up.
Investigators said Lyric had blunt force trauma to her arm and head, she was freezing and her brain was swollen too.
“I’m asking God can we please switch places,” said McGee. “She was just laying up there hopeless. She was on a breathing machine and tubes all in there.”
Lyric died days later.
Presley was taken to jail Sunday.
“You’re sending your child with their father to protect her, and the whole time you’re harming her?” said McGee.
She said she talked to Presley from jail, but he didn’t give her any answers.
“Only him, God and Lyric know what happened,” she said.
Police said Presley later admitted he hurt his daughter.
Lyric will be buried next week. She’s remembered as a sweet, sassy, curious little girl.
Family and friends are raising money for her funeral.
If you’d like to help out, click here.