Recordings of the frantic efforts to save baby Soul Turany’s life have been played in court as a coroner’s inquest into his death – deemed non-accidental by police and medical experts – continues.
And the top cop who lead the homicide investigation into the three-month-old’s death says there are only two people who could have inflicted the extensive and fatal head injuries.
The harrowing recordings of 111 calls were played aloud in court today for Coroner Ian Telford.
Soul can be heard crying at times as his mother, aunt and other adults desperately performed CPR and chest compressions in a bid to save his life.
Sadly, Soul had suffered a catastrophic head injury and died the next day.
“You can see he’s trying to come to ... he’s definitely not with it, but he’s breathing,” his aunt Skye Lamborn told the 111 operator.
Soul was fatally injured – the result of “a hard impact” – at a house in Burnham on August 30, 2014.
Emergency services were called, and Soul was flown to Christchurch Hospital by the Westpac Rescue Helicopter in a critical condition.
His injuries were not survivable, and he was taken off life support just after 3am the following day.
Police launched a homicide investigation, stating Soul’s injuries were non-accidental.
The only people at the house when Soul was hurt were his mother, Storme Turany and her then-partner Tony Farmer.
They split up soon after the little boy died.
Nobody has ever been charged over the infant’s death, though police named Turany and Farmer as persons of interest in the months after.
An inquest is now being held to establish the circumstances.
This week, Coroner Telford has heard extensive evidence from doctors involved with Soul’s death and the criminal investigation.
Turany and Farmer will give evidence next week.
Today, Detective Superintendent Darryl Sweeney – the officer in charge of the investigation into Soul’s death – was called.
“He was, by all accounts – until the 30th of August 2014 – a well-cared-for baby, who was meeting his milestones,” he said.
“From the outset of the investigation, the head injury to Soul presented as a non-accidental injury.”
Sweeney said soon after calls were made to Healthline and 111 about Soul’s condition, police were contacted.
“I ended up at the hospital myself, to speak to the specialist very early,” Sweeney explained.
“It was very apparent, and it came to me quite quickly through the expert opinion that this was a dire head injury, and it could be non-accidental.”
Turany called Heathline and 111 because her baby was “unsettled and out of routine”.
She said he had been “screaming” since 3am and had “a cold” and fluid coming out of his ears.
The Coroner has been told there is no medical evidence at all that Soul had a cold or any signs of respiratory infection at the time he died.
Turany spoke to Healthline for just under 10 minutes, stating Soul was breathing and responsive.
“I gave him panadol at 3.30am ... I’m looking at him and he’s watching TV ... now he’s just starting up again. I think I’m ringing for nothing,” she told the calltaker.
“He’s upset and grumpy.”
The calltaker asked Turany, “Is there any chance baby has been injured?”
“No ... no,” she said.
Soul can be heard making a single, drawn-out cry in the background.
“When a child screams like that, they’re usually in pain ... we would suggest you get him to a doctor pretty much now,” said the calltaker.
“If he becomes unresponsive in any way, call an ambulance.”
While Turany was on the phone, Farmer was holding Soul.
The court heard that when she hung up at 6.42am, he passed Soul back to her and the infant “went limp”.
At 6.43am, Farmer called 111.
“We’ve got a 4-month-old baby, and he’s just gone really limp – we need an ambulance to come and get him, like right away,” he said.
“He’s been crying for ages ... he can’t hold his head up. There’s literally nothing ...” he said.
“He was awake, he was breathing ... he’s just real limp, like, there’s nothing.”
When Farmer called 111, he was walking to get Turany’s sister, Skye Lamborn, who lived on the same property – a dairy farm.
“She wants her sister,” he told the operator.
As Farmer hung up, a neighbour was making a separate call to 111.
“It’s my neighbour ... she’s screaming that something’s wrong with her baby, I’m just going over now,” she said.
“There’s a little baby ... he’s not breathing ... he’s going limp.”
In the background, a panicked woman can be heard saying, “Come on baby, come on”.
“He seems to be breathing every 30 seconds ... but he’s not breathing properly ... it sounds very gurgly ... his eyes are closed ... and he’s not moving.”
The operator instructed the woman on how to give the baby CPR.
“He needs help,” she said.
“Help is on the way ... we’ve got all the help coming as fast as we can.”
A third call was made to 111 by Lamborn at 6.54am.
“What do we do ... it’s my little nephew ... come on sweetie,” she said, speaking to the operator, then Soul.
“You can see he’s trying [to breathe] ... but he’s out.
“Come on baby, come on, come on, come on ...”
Lamborn said she was “hanging out with Soul all day yesterday and ”he was fine".
“I just feel hopeless,” she said.
She and her husband carried out CPR and chest compressions on Soul.
He cried out at times but was otherwise silent.
Eventually, Soul began breathing more steadily.
Lamborn said he was “still raspy” and “not with it” but was more responsive.
The first ambulance arrived at 7.10am and paramedics decided that due to Soul’s condition, he needed to be transported to hospital by helicopter.
Soon after the 111 calls were made a local police officer was alerted.
He arrived at the property at 9am and, after speaking to the neighbour who had called 111, escalated the situation to detectives.
Sweeney was then called in, and the investigation began. He assigned detectives to speak with Soul’s family and the medical team at the hospital.
He then ordered a scene examination to be carried out at Turany and Farmer’s house.
He said as news emerged about Soul’s “rapid deterioration” and skull fracture was relayed to police, it became clear police were investigating a “potential homicide”.
Sweeney said the house was “a nice place” and well set out and organised.
“That did tell me something,” he said.
“Contrary to some of the other (similar investigations), it was very tidy, clearly a good environment for a child.”
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Sweeney said the scene examination was “unremarkable” and “offered little assistance” into how Soul was injured.
Police found no forensic evidence or objects that matched Soul’s injuries.
“Bear in mind it’s a single injury, and there’s no bleeding,” he said.
Sweeney said realistically, there were only two people that could have hurt Soul.
“Police are satisfied that during the critical period there are no persons other than Ms Turany and Mr Farmer that had access to Soul,” he said.
“Based on facts the investigation has centred on Mr Farmer and Ms Turany who continue to be persons of interest.”
Sweeney said it “cannot be entirely discounted” that another party was involved but, he was satisfied that was not the case.
“We weren’t there at the time of the assault - we’re putting this together from known facts,” he said.
“What I’ve learned over 30 years (in the police) is anything can be possible- but ostensibly, on the facts it came down to those two.”
Turany and Farmer were interviewed repeatedly by police about Soul’s death.
The pair, who met on the dating app Tinder, were both 22 a the time.
Turany, originally from Australia, gave a written statement at Christchurch Hospital soon after Soul was admitted.
Sweeney said she was “upset” and it was “difficult to obtain much detail” from her.
“When asked directly whether she had shaken or hurt Soul she denied any responsibility,” he said.
“She admitted that she struggled to be a mother and have a relationship with Soul and that she considered terminating her pregnancy.”
Turany was interviewed by police again in September 2014
Sweeney said by then police had a “reasonably firm medical opinion” about Soul’s death and police spoke to her again about what happened to the baby and her relationship with Farmer.
At her final interview, lasting just 22 minutes, Turany was represented by a lawyer.
“Throughout the three interviews with Ms Turany she has maintained a position of innocence. The consistent theme in this was that she was not involved in the death of Soul.
“She also did not nominate any other person who may have been responsible.”
The court heard that Farmer, born in the UK, was interviewed four times.
Farmer’s first interview spanned more than four hours.
“The interview covered a wide range of topics, including his relationship with Soul,” Sweeney said.
“Throughout the interview, Mr Farmer maintained he was not involved in the injuries sustained by Soull and offered no explanation.
“Police interviewed Mr Farmer a second time… and he continued to maintain his position that he had nothing to do with the death of Soul.”
The final interview with Farmer was in 2016.
Like Turany, Farmer “consistently” denied he was involved in Soul’s death and did not suggest or accuse anyone else in relation to the baby’s fatal injuries.
The Coroner heard that Farmer also sent Turany a message denying he was responsible.
“I never hurt Soul… I never did anything to f**k up the family I wanted," part of the message read.
Sweeney said police team firmly believed Soul’s death was not an accident - that either his mother or her then-boyfriend had inflicted the fatal injuries.
“One of them must be responsible,” he said.
He said three criminal charges were considered, but to date, based on the Solicitor General’s prosecution guidelines, there was not enough evidence to prosecute either Turany or Farmer.
“That could change at any time if new information came to the attention of this investigation,” he said
“Based on the various findings and information gathered, the charges considered were murder, manslaughter and infanticide.”
Earlier today, Coroner Telford heard evidence from Dr Ross Keenan, a neuroradiologist who worked on Soul’s case at Christchurch Hospital.
He explained to the court that Soul’s brain scans were “extremely ominous” and showed “a catastrophic injury” that he knew immediately would likely have “an extremely poor outcome”.
He said the “unmistakably abnormal” scans showed Soul’s brain had been subjected to a “huge insult” – anywhere between four and 12 hours before he was admitted to hospital.
“It was pretty fresh,” he told the court.
Most patients with injuries such as Soul’s presented as “critically unwell”.
“I would expect them to be … deeply unconscious, not breathing for themselves … floppy … extraordinarily unwell and requiring life support,” he said.
“Albeit the life support is going to be relatively ineffective.”
He said Soul’s skull fracture was “significant and complex”.
“We commonly see fractures of older children where they can run around and fall down … we normally see a linear fracture,” he explained.
“But [Soul’s] was in a different category,” he said.
Keenan was reluctant to speculate on the level of force required to inflict the injuries on the baby.
“In general, if you look at the literature and … data you’re talking about dropping from at least 1m to 1.5m to produce a skull fracture,” he said.
“It is impossible for me to say in this individual case what the level of force was. It is generally agreed that these complicated fractures require a greater level of force than accidental, linear fractures.
“That trauma caused malfunctioning of the brain … You end up with a downward spiral, a vicious spiral of … injury. From the first CT scan, you already knew that this prognosis was ominous and likely to be lethal.”
He said it was clear Soul’s injuries were not the result of an accident.
“Three-and-a-half-month-olds don’t really walk around and don’t put themselves in a position of damaging themselves by falling or all the things that older children can do,” Keenan said.
“So from our point of view, this is a non-accidental injury until proven otherwise.”
The inquest continues.
Anna Leask is a senior journalist who covers national crime and justice. She joined the Herald in 2008 and has worked as a journalist for 20 years with a particular focus on family and gender-based violence, child abuse, sexual violence, homicides, mental health and youth crime. She writes, hosts and produces the award-winning podcast A Moment In Crime, released monthly on nzherald.co.nz