‘I owe it to her’: Family looks for answers, raises money for baby found dead in KC woods

Kansas City Star - 6/2/2023

Marty Lammers’ youngest daughter felt sick when she learned that police had found a decomposing baby in the Kansas City woods on Mother’s Day weekend.

The week prior, Lammers’ family was told that 6-month-old Kha’liya Bridgewater had died in her sleep, but his oldest daughter — Kha’liya’s mother — didn’t answer any questions he had about funeral arrangements or other matters.

Lammers’ ex-wife and daughter reached out to the TIPS Hotline with information that Kha’liya may have been the dead infant police found in a 19-acre vacant lot near the intersection of East 41st Street and Pittman Road, Lammers said.

Other than a few text messages, Lammers hasn’t communicated much with his oldest daughter since the news broke. What he has heard either from her or other loved ones doesn’t add up, he said.

After police found the body, Lammers’ oldest daughter said she needed to pick up Kha’liya’s ashes and death certificate, Lammers said. According to court documents, the mother told one witness that she found the baby “blue in the face” and called police and emergency medical services.

But on Thursday, police identified the victim as Kha’liya. Detectives also confirmed there were no reports to medical examiners of a 6-month-old dying in the metro area.

“That’s when I got to the point where this is the time where I hope for the best, but I expect the worst,” Lammers said.

Because the case remains under investigation, police said they can’t release other details surrounding the circumstances of the baby’s death. Detectives are primarily waiting for the medical examiner to make a ruling on the death, they said.

‘A happy baby’

In December, Lammers traveled to Kansas City to meet Kha’liya, who was about one month old at the time, and see his other kids and grandchildren.

He held the baby and told her that he loved her. She was “precious,” he said, and “a happy baby.”

“All the pictures I’ve got of her, she’s always smiling,” Lammers said. “Got fingers tucked in her mouth like she just pulled herself out of a fish line. She was a very adorable baby, very lovable.”

On Friday, some of Lammers’ family members and loved ones in Kansas City will hold a candlelight vigil at 8 p.m. to honor Kha’liya in the same area where her body was found.

So far, a GoFundMe to raise money for Kha’liya’s funeral totals more than $2,500. The funds will also help Lammers travel from Texas to Kansas City for the service.

People have reached out and told him there are funeral homes that might provide a free service for a child so young, but he wants the chance to say a proper goodbye to his granddaughter, who was found with two kitchen trash bags around her legs.

“She was disrespected by being put in the woods,” Lammers said. “As her grandfather, I owe it to her to give her the respect and the utmost most amazing service that she deserves.”

Allegations of abuse

Lammers believes his daughter was raising Kha’liya with her current boyfriend. Family members thought he was the baby’s father, but, according to court documents, a DNA test through the Kansas City crime lab showed that was not the case.

When Lammers visited their home, he said his daughter’s boyfriend wouldn’t talk with him. Lammers said the boyfriend messaged him through his daughter’s social media page after police found the dead baby, saying people were dragging Lammers’ daughter through the mud, but Lammers said he never replied.

“He couldn’t give me a 15-minute sit down to introduce himself to me, I don’t need to listen to you now,” Lammers said.

Through his daughter’s friends, Lammers also heard that his daughter’s boyfriend beat her with extension cords and other items. His daughter never told him about the issues herself.

During his December visit, Lammers hoped to convince his daughter to move to Texas with Kha’liya and her other children, a 4-year-old son and a 2-year-old daughter. He thought he could help his daughter find a job there with insurance to support herself and her kids, so she could have a “refresh moment” after not having a job for a while.

Lammers said he didn’t always agree with how his daughter lived her life, but he would be there for her and her children. If they needed money for diapers or other necessities, Lammers said he and his girlfriend would make sure they had it.

Detectives have questioned the woman they believe to be Kha’liya’s mother after a DNA analysis. During a police interview, she told detectives she only had two children and “denied ever having an infant daughter,” according to court documents. Later, she “admitted she had a third child.”

The woman told detectives Kha’liya was last seen alive on May 4 in her Squier Park apartment. She said her boyfriend told her Kha’liya was choking and held the baby against his chest. Later, she said he told her Kha’liya was sleeping, according to court documents.

She told detectives she found the baby an hour later with her eyes open and her arms folded against her chest, but said she didn’t call 911 because her phone was broken, according to court documents.

Until detectives finish their investigation, Lammers won’t know what happened. But, if his daughter had anything to do with it, he said Kha’liya deserves justice most of all.

“My belief is that if she’s gonna be punished, she needs to be punished by the courts,” he said, “and she needs to do the time that’s handed to her.”

Since the news broke, his daughter’s other children have been taken into foster care, Lammers said.

So far, he said he got one update about the kids’ well-being.

He learned that the foster parent caring for his granddaughter is making sure she gets to the doctor and Head Start, but Lammers hasn’t heard any updates about his grandson. He hopes the siblings have been placed in the same foster home, but he said he isn’t sure.

At the meeting, Lammers said he told officials he wants to bring them home with him as soon as possible.