8-week-old suffered spinal cord damage, multiple fractures. Couple charged.

Two-month-old’s spinal cord injury, multiple fractures, including ribs, and internal damage results in charges against her mother and a man believed to be the baby’s father.

Kentucky State Police reports say Stephanie R. Shepherd, 26, and Nicholas L. Wilson, 26, both of Horse Branch, where charged Tuesday with first-degree criminal abuse, a felony, which state law defines as when a person "causes torture, cruel confinement or cruel punishment to a person 12 years of age or less ..."

KSP reports say the investigation began in February, when an infant, who was then 2 months old, was taken to Kosair Children's Hospital in Louisville.

Tim Coleman, commonwealth's attorney for the district covering Ohio County, said physicians found the infant has suffered multiple fractures that were at different stages of healing, indicating they had occurred at different times. KSP reports say the infant had fractured ribs and internal trauma.

Shepherd is the child's mother, and Wilson is believed to be the child's father, Coleman said.

Trooper Corey King, public information officer for KSP's Henderson post, said the infant also had a spinal cord injury.

King said the investigation took several months, as tests were conducted and people were interviewed.

Detectives first had to determine if the injuries could "have happened any other way" than through abuse, King said.

"You've got a victim that can't express what happened, so (detectives) have to be their voice," he said.

The Ohio County grand jury indicted Shepherd and Wilson earlier this month.

King said the infant is in the care of other family members and is healing.

The doctors who examined the infant, "are hopeful for recovery," King said.

First-degree criminal abuse is a class C felony, punishable upon conviction by between 10 and 20 years in prison. Shepherd and Wilson were being held Wednesday in the Daviess County Detention Center.

This story was originally published October 20, 2016 at 2:50 PM with the headline "8-week-old suffered spinal cord damage, multiple fractures. Couple charged.."