Former Greene County couple held for trial in Uniontown toddler’s starvation death
In this composite image, Andrea Dusha and Michael Wright Jr. arrive at a preliminary hearing in the death of their daughter, Lydia, Tuesday.
Andrea Dusha is led into the office of District Judge Michael Metros in Uniontown Tuesday.
Michael Wright Jr., along with girlfirend Andrea Dusha, faces homicide and other charges in the death of a toddler.
Andrea Dusha arrives at a preliminary hearing in the death of his daughter, Lydia, Tuesday.
Michael Wright Jr. arrives at a preliminary hearing in the death of her daughter, Lydia, Tuesday.
UNIONTOWN – Lydia Wright was dead for several hours and weighed only 10 pounds when she was brought to Uniontown Hospital by her mother, according to testimony at the preliminary hearing for her parents accused in their 23-month-old daughter’s starvation death.
Clarksville native Andrea Dusha, 26, and her boyfriend, Michael Wright Jr., 32, are charged with starving Lydia, who died of severe malnourishment and dehydration Feb. 24, while the couple and their other two children lived in what investigators called deplorable conditions at their Uniontown home.
District Judge Michael Metros held them for trial on charges of homicide, child endangerment and reckless endangerment following the two-hour preliminary hearing Tuesday afternoon in Uniontown.
The couple lived in Cumberland Township a year before the child’s death, but were evicted from two residences in Greene County before moving to Uniontown.
Dusha, wearing glasses and a yellow prisoner jumpsuit, sat motionless for most of the hearing, but dabbed tears after Metros ruled both should stand trial. Wright, with shorn dreadlocks and a dark bruise around his left eye, sat expressionless for most of the hearing.
“Each of them accepted no responsibility is what it comes down to,” Fayette County District Attorney Richard Bower said.
Dr. Michael Bradmon, an emergency room physician at Uniontown Hospital, said the girl “was clearly deceased” when Dusha brought her in about 11:20 a.m., but medical staff attempted to resuscitate her. He testified the girl’s joints were rigid, indicating rigor mortis set in, and her eyes were dry and skin pale white. Her body temperature was 94.6 degrees Fahrenheit.
“The child appeared lifeless,” Bradmon said.
Lydia was declared dead at 11:34 a.m., just 14 minutes after she was admitted, although Bradmon said the girl died hours earlier.
“It had been at least a few hours that the child had been deceased before being presented to the hospital,” Bradmon said.
Bradmon said Dusha told the medical staff the girl was sick a few days before but was “doing OK” the morning she died. The mother told doctors she tried to feed the girl a mix of Gatorade and Pedialyte when her jaw clamped down on the bottle, her eyes rolled back and she became unresponsive. Dusha told Bradmon she brought the girl directly to the hospital.
“She seemed very calm,” Bradmon said of Dusha’s demeanor at the hospital.
An autopsy found Lydia weighed 10 pounds at the time of her death.
Dusha told state police investigators she put Lydia in an infant car seat about 10 p.m. the night before in a second bedroom as the rest of the family slept together in a separate bedroom. They told investigators they left the girl alone in the room because she was sick.
Trooper Heather Clem-Johnston, who interviewed Dusha, said the mother claimed she awoke about 7:30 a.m., checked on Lydia and then went to a nearby fast food restaurant to use wireless internet. Her car ran out of gasoline, however, and she called a tow truck for fuel and eventually made it to the restaurant with a bloody nose, Clem-Johnston said, although she did not elaborate on what caused it.
Dusha returned to her home about 10 a.m. and woke Lydia, indicating the girl was strapped in the car seat for at least 12 hours, according to Clem-Johnston. Dusha claimed she fed her the Gatorade and Pedialyte mix, but said the girl then went into a seizure and Dusha rushed her to Uniontown Hospital. Clem-Johnston questioned Dusha why she did not wake Wright or call 911.
“What was I going to do? Carry her body upstairs?” Clem-Johnston recalled Dusha saying during an interview and insinuating the girl was already dead. Clem-Johnston said Dusha told investigators the parents hadn’t taken Lydia to her pediatrician in Waynesburg in more than a year.
Authorities described poor living conditions when they searched the home the following day. The apartment was without running water since November, Uniontown Detective Don Gmitter said. He said a toilet was filled with feces “to the brim” and a child’s highchair was covered in feces in an upstairs bathtub. Trash and food covered the floor and a hypodermic needle was found inside, Gmitter said.
“The residence was generally deplorable,” he said.
Gmitter said he also found an eerie Facebook comment Dusha posted hours before the hospital visit.
“If you want the dead to stop coming back to life then you have to kill the living,” the post read.
Metros, who was stoic most of the hearing, shook his head and cleared his throat after viewing the post and admitting it into evidence.
But Dusha’s defense attorney, David Shrager, said no correlation between the post and her daughter’s death should be assumed.
“What’s the relevance?” he asked. “It’s from a zombie movie.”
Wright’s attorney, Mary Spegar, tried to pin the blame on Dusha, saying he thought she was caring for the child.
Metros disagreed and said both parents should stand trial on the charges. He declined to offer them bond. They are being held at Fayette County jail while they await formal arraignment at 9:30 a.m. June 16.