Couple Held in Death of 4-Year-Old

SPOKANE, Wash. – A Spokane couple was ordered held Monday on $500,000 bond each in the death of the man’s 4-year-old daughter. Detectives said the child had been forced to wear a shock collar, beaten with belts and suffered human bite wounds.

Jonathan Lytle, 28, and Adriana Lytle, 32, the girl’s father and stepmother, were arrested Sunday for investigation of first-degree murder after Jonathan Lytle took the girl to Deaconess Medical Center with bruises from head to toe.

The girl apparently drowned, but her injuries were so extensive that investigators were awaiting autopsy results to determine the cause of death.

“This is the worst case I’ve ever seen and my detectives feel the same,” said Sgt. Joe Peterson of the department’s major crimes unit. “It’s probably the worst case of abuse that any of us in hundreds of combined years in this unit have ever seen.”

The victim, who apparently was developmentally disabled, was made to wear a shock collar, typically used for training dogs, in attempts to discipline her, court documents indicated.

The girl apparently drowned in a bath tub in which she had been forced to wash urine-stained clothing, court documents said. According to the documents, the child also had injuries from beatings with belts and spoons and had human bite marks on her body.

The family lived in an apartment less than two blocks from the Public Safety Building.

A second child, an 8-month-old boy, was taken from the home and placed in foster care.