Gage Martin Seneca

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tashia Seneca went into her three year old son Gage's bedroom expecting to find him fast asleep in his little play tent. Instead, she realized he wasn’t breathing. When she realized that Gage wasn’t breathing, she called 911. Her mother, an emergency medical technician who also lives at the home, began performing CPR. The reservation’s volunteer firefighters arrived, and Gage was rushed to Lake Shore Hospital in Irving, but there was nothing anyone could do. Gage was pronounced dead at 8:45 a.m. An autopsy performed found that Gage died as the result of blunt force trauma to the head.

 

Tashia’s live in boyfriend, Justin Crouse had awakened at about 1 a.m. to find his girlfriend’s son Gage Seneca was out of his bedroom and walking around the living room. The six foot two, 210 pound construction worker struck Gage before picking him up and put him back in his play tent in where Gage had been sleeping since making the transition from a crib a couple of weeks earlier. Investigators do not know whether Gage was already dead when Crouse put him back in his tent or whether he could have been saved if he had been taken to a hospital after being injured. Crouse wasn’t close to Gage, and there were no indication he had ever abused him before.

 

Investigators found no history of child abuse or neglect at the home, which detectives said was immaculate and filled with children’s toys. There had been a few 911 calls from the house over the last five years, including one for a suspected domestic dispute that did not involve Crouse and was not violent in nature. Crouse has nine arrests on his record, all misdemeanors, mostly for disorderly conduct and criminal mischief but no felonies, according to the Sheriff’s Office. Crouse was charged with second degree murder and sentenced to 21 years in prison for Gage Seneca death.