Madison mother charged with murder in child death

By Charles Molineaux

MADISON – Tight-lipped and largely silent, Justin Fairburn and his relatives filed into Berryhill Funeral Home on Friday for the visitation and funeral for his 7-month-old daughter Blakely.

A friend described him and the entire family as devastated about the loss of the baby and about uncertainty surrounding the girl’s mother, 27-year-old Desiree Dawn Childers, who is charged with murder for Blakely’s death.

Desiree Childers | Photo from Madison Police Department

On Aug. 30, Madison city police and paramedics rushed to the couple’s home on Oak Brook Circle in response to a 911 call about an infant who’d possibly drowned in a bathtub, according to a release from the Madison Police Department.

Neighbors on the small, self-contained circle block described a busy scene of emergency vehicles and crime scene tape. Police said paramedics took the child to Huntsville Hospital where she was later pronounced dead.

“Any time we have a death investigation like that, we work as if it may be a criminal investigation,” said Lt. Terrell Cook with the Madison Investigations Division.

On Sept. 3, Childers was arrested and charged with murder. Madison police revealed few details of their investigation, but said that enough evidence had been collected to warrant criminal charges and that they were awaiting the results of toxicology tests to determine if drugs or alcohol were involved.

Cook said the case has now been handed over to the Madison County District Attorney’s office for prosecution. Childers is being held at the Madison County Jail on $500,000 bond. According to a Madison police statement, additional charges may be filed.

“It’s still under investigation,” said Cook. “One arrest has been made. This case is still open.”