Birth mother of child who died at
Schweinfurt recalls spousal abuse
By Kevin Dougherty,
Staff writer
Photo courtesy of Carissa Contreras
Austin, now 4, and Ashley Smith, 5, posed for photos in November 1999. Ashley died from
internal injuries last week in Schweinfurt, Germany. |
The birth mother of the 5-year-old girl in Schweinfurt, Germany, who died last week
from injuries attributed to physical abuse, said the girl’s father has a history of
violent behavior that once landed him in an anger management course while the two were
still married and living in Texas.
"We didn’t get along at all," Spc. Carissa Contreras said in a telephone
interview this week.
Contreras, who is stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C., said her former husband struck her on
three occasions while they were married, but cannot recall ever seeing him abusing their
daughter, Ashley, or son, Austin. The spousal abuse ultimately led Sgt. Rodger Smith to
seek counseling while still stationed at Fort Hood.
"We both wanted the divorce," Contreras said, "but I didn’t know it
would end this way."
It ended in the early morning hours of Aug. 22, when U.S. and German authorities
responded to Smith’s off-base residence. An anonymous caller had apparently told an
emergency operator that Ashley had ingested something and later collapsed.
Paramedics were unable to revive Ashley May Smith, and she was pronounced dead at 12:40
a.m. An autopsy performed by German authorities determined the girl succumbed to abdominal
injuries.
"Injuries over the whole body led us to the assumption that the child was
subjected to physical abuse for a longer period of time already," German police
spokesman Karl-Heinz Schmitt was quoted as saying in a local newspaper. Schmitt said
forensic pathologists found severe bruises and abrasions, especially on the forehead and
abdominal areas, during the autopsy.
"The wounds on the abdomen could have been caused by hits, blows or kicks,"
Schmitt said.
Since last week, German authorities have charged Kayla Smith, Ashley’s stepmother,
with assault resulting in death and mistreatment of a ward. The 22-year-old falls under
German jurisdiction because she is a civilian.
A U.S. Army spokesman said military investigators in Schweinfurt are trying to
determine what, if any, role the girl’s father may have played in her death. As of
Wednesday, the 1st Infantry Division soldier had not been charged or reassigned.
"He remains under the jurisdiction of U.S. authorities," said Maj. Erik
Gunhus, a spokesman for the 1st Infantry Division.
Gunhus could not elaborate on the details of the ongoing investigation, except to say
the results of an autopsy are pending and that officials "are moving as expeditiously
as possible."
"The Army is trying to do the right thing for all parties involved," Gunhus
said.
While Army officials aren’t elaborating on Smith’s precise disposition,
Contreras said she has been told that he is under a 24-hour watch by members of his unit
and that his movement has been restricted. Smith is assigned to the 1st Battalion, 18th
Infantry Regiment.
German media accounts have essentially said the same thing.
In addition, Contreras said she has been told by her commander that officials found
evidence that 4-year-old Austin may have been abused as well, having suffered bruises on
his back. He is currently under the care of a U.S. military foster family.
"I never thought he would hurt the kids," Contreras said.
According to a preliminary serious incident report by military investigators, Smith
apparently "confessed to having thrown the child across her room toward the bed when
she was acting up."
"On one occasion," the report stated, Ashley "hit the bed post and, on
another [occasion], the bed rail. According to Sgt. Smith, this happened on Sunday [Aug.
19]."
Contreras described her relationship with her ex-husband as cordial. She kept things
civil, she said, because he had custody and she wanted to maintain contact with her
children. In fact, Contreras said she had been saving money to mount a legal challenge to
reclaim custody of her two children.
She claims Contreras out-maneuvered her in the courts to win domicile privileges,
meaning they maintain joint custody but the kids lived with him.
"I gave him the kids in 1998, when I joined the Army," Contreras said.
"I kept telling him, ‘This is temporary.’ "
After the couple separated, but before they got a divorce, Contreras and the children
left Ft. Hood, Texas, where Smith was being counseled, and moved to her hometown in
Wisconsin. After more than a year of struggling to make ends meet, Contreras decided to
join the Army, figuring it would provide a decent and steady income for her and her two
kids.
It was during this time, when she was going through basic training, that Smith won
custody of the two children, she said. Since Contreras joined the Army, she has remarried
and has had her third child — a girl.
"I was saving up money to get full custody," Contreras said. "I wish I
could turn back time and get my baby back. I’m just so heartbroken."
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