The mother of a 2-year-old girl who died from heat exposure in a car while in her grandmother’s care Saturday says the grandmother does not have an addiction to drugs or alcohol, despite a police report that indicates the woman was drunk and on pain medication at the time of the toddler’s death.
Yvonne Mabry was taking painkillers after being beaten in a domestic- violence attack June 26, said her daughter, Kristina Buchmiller, whose child Elizabeth died while in Mabry’s care.
“I don’t know why she was drinking,” Buchmiller said Tuesday, adding that her mother is only a “social drinker.”
“I know my mom. Even when she’s drinking, she doesn’t get completely smashed,” she said.
“She says she doesn’t remember anything. That doesn’t mean that she did it,” Buchmiller said of the police report that indicated Mabry was not certain how Elizabeth came to be found unbuckled in the seat of a car.
Perhaps the toddler climbed into the car while playing, Buchmiller said.
Mabry is being held on suspicion of child abuse resulting in death.
Police records indicate that on Saturday, the day Elizabeth Buchmiller died, Mabry had been drinking “several beers and some hard liquor” and had taken some pain medication while in charge of Elizabeth and her 5-year-old sister.
“She stated that she was drunk and was sorry that she didn’t remember more about what happened,” the report read in part.
A neighbor found the child Saturday afternoon near Mabry’s home in the Jody Apartments at 5375 W. 10th Ave.
She was in the parking lot in the back seat of a four-door, maroon Buick LeSabre with its windows rolled up on a day the temperatures climbed to 97 degrees.
The man pounded on Mabry’s door, alerting the woman and her 12-year-old son.
The boy, who has not been identified, carried his unresponsive niece from the car to the apartment, the report says, before paramedics responded and declared her dead.
Two weeks before Elizabeth Buchmiller died, police records say, Mabry’s then-boyfriend beat, choked and kicked Mabry at her home.
Kristina Buchmiller said the attack left her mother with severe pain from two broken ribs, a smashed nose and a jaw injury.
Reports indicate the man involved, identified as Thomas Burns, 47, has an extensive criminal history and was arrested on domestic violence counts regarding the incident.
Burns could not be reached for comment.
On Monday, Buchmiller and her husband, Tim Buchmiller, 26, said they had left the two girls with Mabry for about a week while packing to move to Chicago.
They did not know the nature of Burns’ criminal history before the alleged assault on Mabry, Kristina Buchmiller said Tuesday, only that he had recently gotten out of jail for what he termed was “something stupid.”
Meanwhile, one co-worker described Mabry as very caring and competent in her care of children.
Patricia Olson, who supervised Mabry since hiring her four years ago as an aide in the health clinic at Wheat Ridge Middle School, said Mabry dispensed medications and treated sick kids.
“She is extraordinary with the kids,” Olson said Tuesday. “She could figure things out, and she could help them.”
And most of all, Mabry cared about her grandchildren, Olson said.
“I don’t know how she’s going to recover from this, to be honest with you,” she said of Elizabeth’s death. “This was an accident. She adored those children.”
Staff writer Michelle Wallar can be reached at 303-820-1201 or mwallar@denverpost.com.
