HAMPTON, Va. — Officials updated the media and the public with the results of Noah Tomlin's autopsy. Two-year-old Noah disappeared during the summer. Police found him dead days after his disappearance.
Commonwealth's Attorney Anton Bell held the news conference on Thursday, Oct. 31 at Hampton General District Court where he announced that the medical examiner determined that Noah Tomlin died of blunt force trauma to the head and battered child syndrome.
The autopsy revealed that Noah had multiple fractures including to his skull and Bell noted that two severe skull fractures definitively caused the toddler's death.
"The type of injury this child suffered was as if a child had fallen several stories," Bell said. "His abuse was of such a nature that his bones stopped growing. There was evidence of that."
"There is no question in my mind that this child was tortured," Bell said. "Justice looks like Julia Tomlin being held fully accountable...and that's prison. She should never hold a baby again."
Bell said a warrant was issued for Noah's mother, Julia Tomlin, for the murder and unlawful disposal of a body.
In the press conference, Bell said Noah's body was in an advanced state of decomposition when his remains were found. Only the toddler's liver was recognizable and there were injuries on his body that were consistent with abuse.
Noah's mother, Julia Tomlin, reported him missing on June 24. Investigators found his remains at the Hampton Steam Plant on July 3.
Officers arrested Tomlin a few days after she reported Noah's disappearance. She currently faces multiple felony child neglect charges.
Bell said an anthropologist was brought in to help the medical examiner to piece together the fragments of bones.
Court documents said two men saw Noah just a couple of days before he went missing.
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Search teams and law enforcement from across Hampton Roads worked for days to track down Noah.
Although police found Noah's remains on July 3, it wasn't until July 13 that they were able to confirm they were his.
A judge denied bond for Noah's mother on July 29. She remains in jail.