Shattered family: Mobile 3-year-old is dead, while his mother and mother’s boyfriend face murder charges

By BRENDAN KIRBY

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    MOBILE, AL (WALA) — A 3-year-old boy is dead, his mother and mother’s boyfriend are charged with murder, and a family is left to wonder what went wrong.

Tyren Edwards died Wednesday, three days after arriving at Children’s and Women’s Hospital with severe injuries. Mobile police said an autopsy pointed to head trauma and other injuries. Tyren’s mother, 26-year-old Tatyana Anika Edwards, turned herself in on Friday on a felony murder charge. Abraham Hatch, 19, surrendered Sunday. He faces a capital murder charge.

Both defendants are scheduled to have a bail hearing on Tuesday.

Ericka Massey, the boy’s grandmother, remembered a little boy Monday who was full of life.

“He’s like, an old man’s soul, a kid with an old man’s soul,” said Massey, whose son was the boy’s father and not present when he was taken to the hospital. “He had a soul of an old man. He was always smiling. He always tell me he loved me even when he in trouble.”

Mobile County prosecutors said they would wait until after Tuesday’s bail hearing to comment on the case. Police have not provided many details, either.

“They haven’t told us nothing,” said Terrance Ball, the father of Tatyana Edwards.

Ball, who owns an auto dealership on Government Boulevard, said Hatch worked for him. He said that is how he met Edwards. The two began dating and had been together for about three months, Ball said.

He said her daughter was asleep when Hatch told her something was wrong with the child.

“She says he woke her up at 2:30 that morning,” he told FOX10 News. “He was saying the baby wasn’t breathing. She went in there and seen bruises on him. She asked him why he had bruises on him. He like, ‘It happened on a four-wheeler.”

That four-wheeler accident supposedly happened the prior week in Theodore. But Ball said his daughter told him she saw any injuries prior to that morning.

Massey said her son is crushed by his son’s death. She said when she first heard her grandson was in the hospital and wasn’t breathing, she assumed it was related to his asthma.

“And when I saw him, it was devastating,” she said. “Very devastating. … It was a totally different situation. He was abused bad, very bad.”

Massey said Tatyana is a hard worker and attentive mother, both to her now-deceased son and a child from a previous relationship. She said she does not believe Tatyana did anything to cause her son’s death.

“She didn’t have nothing to do with that,” she said. “You know, I can put that on my life. She didn’t. She don’t even spank the kids – not even a pinch.”

Kendra Parker, Hatch’s mother, told FOX10 News that she wanted to wait until after the boy’s funeral – out of respect – before commenting publicly.

“The tension is already high,” she said. “It doesn’t matter what you say. They’re grieving.”

Massey said that funeral is planned for Saturday. She said her grandson loved the PJ Masks superhero show.

“He liked the green character,” she said. “So we’re wearing green to the funeral.”

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