Remembering a short life, community holds vigil for suspected child abuse victim

Nov. 14--They called him Jay Jay. He was a dancer, a would-be superhero and a lover of chicken nuggets. He could count to 20.

"He was always laughing and running," said Megan Tatum, 26, a neighbor. "His mom always had to chase him."

On Monday night, Tatum joined a crowd of more than 60 people to remember 3-year-old Jonathan Munoz-Bilbrey, who died on Sunday afternoon.

At least half the candles were held by children, fellow residents of Munoz-Bilbrey's apartment complex in south Joplin. A breeze threatened the flames, and a few children took on the task of relighting candles that blew out.

After a few prayers, the crowd circled around Jonathan's mother in a sort of communal embrace, one that was all the warmer because NaTasha Bilbrey didn't expect it.

Bilbrey, 22, moved from the Denver area to Joplin eight months ago to "get my head on right." The area still feels new, but the move had been going well, she says -- she moved with her kids into a well-kept, rent-controlled apartment complex. Jay Jay had his own room, to his delight.

As the crowd thinned out, Bilbrey had smiles for the people who stopped to hug her. Afterward, she said she is working hard to hold back the waves of sorrow that come with hearing her son's name, seeing his picture or feeling the urge to call for him.

"I can't be like, 'Jonathan, come here!'" she said.

Instead, she has sought to remember him as well as she can. Hours after his death, she made a public plea for images of her son's life.

"All I need right now is pictures of him," she wrote.

An outpouring of dozens of photos, pulled from the cameras of relatives and friends, traced the short arc of the child's life.

Jay Jay as an infant, wide-eyed at the world. Jay Jay as a toddler on a merry-go-round. On Christmas, opening presents bigger than he was. In a superhero costume on Halloween, his chest puffed up with padded muscle.

On Friday, he arrived at the Freeman Hospital emergency room with bruises, cuts and severe head injuries, according to Joplin police documents. Hospital staff, recognizing signs of child abuse, called the authorities.

As the investigation began, the child was flown by helicopter to Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. His mother drove after him, accompanied by her boyfriend, Leonard Valdez, 21.

On Saturday, Valdez was arrested at a hotel in Kansas City by police there. Jasper County Prosecutor Theresa Kenney said Monday that her office will await the results of an autopsy before filing charges against him. Preliminary results could be available as early as this afternoon, according to Jasper County Coroner Rob Chappel.

On Monday afternoon, residents waited at the front gate of the complex for the arrival of a school bus. Voices filled the air as children poured off the bus.

Bilbrey says she is angry with Valdez, though she spoke to him after his arrest this weekend. The couple had been together about a year and spoke of getting married.

"He doesn't know what to say, and I don't know what to tell him," she said.

She says Valdez liked to play with Jay Jay, and couldn't resist giving the child candy. She declined to say what went wrong on Friday.

One of Jay Jay's playmates lived next door. Their favorite activity was chucking rocks on the playground -- though not at each other -- said the child's mother, Kacey Collins, 23.

On Monday afternoon, Collins had not yet told her son that his friend is gone.

"Eventually," she said. "I know he'll be asking."

Collins and Bilbrey knew each other, too. Collins saw in NaTasha Valdez another single mother fighting to provide for her young children.

When she heard loud noises through the wall on Oct. 21, she went to investigate. She says she interrupted a scuffle.

Another neighbor called the police, and Valdez, 21, was arrested and charged with misdemeanor domestic assault.

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