How did an infant suffer a deadly skull fracture? Her mother gave police multiple excuses

By Ryan Dickstein

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    ABERDEEN, Maryland (WMAR) — A 5 ½-month-old girl died on New Year’s Eve.

“It was reported that the victim was suffering from multiple injuries to include skull fractures, brain bleeds, and a broken left leg,” Harford County Sheriff’s detectives wrote in charging documents. “There was also bruising on both eyes which the doctors believed were from retinal hemorrhaging.”

Detectives believe her mother, 32-year-old Maya Dennis, had sole care and custody.

During an interview, Dennis offered investigators multiple accounts of how the baby got hurt.

“She first told detectives that earlier on 12/28/24, one of her other children was running in the home and accidentally fell on the victim,” charging documents state. “She later told detectives that the injuries on the eyes were caused by medication that the victim was taking. She reported the medication makes the victim’s eyes swell which normally subsides within an hour.”

In an attempt to collect more evidence, investigators searched phones belonging to Dennis.

They reportedly found messages Dennis sent suggesting her daughter’s injuries were from complications experienced in the NICU at birth.

Doctors and nurses disagreed, telling detectives the child’s injuries were inconsistent with Dennis’ version of events.

Police ruled out one other person of interest.

Detectives pulled video of who visited Dennis’ Aberdeen home the day her daughter stopped breathing.

Just one individual, a man, stopped by for about 45 minutes.

“Dennis stated that when the male was in the home, he did not touch the victim and had no unsupervised interactions with her,” detectives wrote in charging documents. “The male also stated that he only saw the victim for a brief moment. He did that when he left the apartment, the victim did not have any visible injuries to [their] face.”

With that, Dennis was arrested and charged with first degree murder and child abuse.

She’s currently being held without bail, with a preliminary court hearing scheduled for January 30.

Court records show Dennis was already set to go on trial March 3 for an unrelated misdemeanor theft charge.

She’s also been charged twice in the past for assault, in 2011 and 2012. Both cases were placed on the inactive stet docket.

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