Alone, frostbitten and bruised: the tragic death of a Richmond 2-year-old
The 2-year-old was left inside a cold, dirty apartment, with no access to food or water.
Her mother wasn’t there to tuck her in at night or change her diaper when it was soiled.
Skylar Gardner, 2, was found dead underneath a fallen lightweight dresser with her body already going into rigor mortis by the time the woman who was supposed to take care of her says she found the girl.
While the toddler lived in filth and squalor among feces and mounds of trash with her 3-year-brother, her mother, Chantell Gardner, was off with her boyfriend, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department detectives allege in a probable cause affidavit for her arrest.
“The home was a biohazard,” police wrote.
The Marion County Prosecutor’s Office announced Thursday that Chantell Gardner was indicted on murder and neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury.
Boyfriend also charged, children’s father speaks to detectives
Skylar Gardner, 2, was found dead with injuries and bruises on her body Jan. 25, 2025 inside her apartment on the Newberry Road.
According to court records, Skylar’s multiple injuries included bruising over most of her body, bite marks on her back and arm, frostbite on her hands and feet, and a puncture wound near her neck, possibly caused by a rodent after her death.
Skylar was found dead under a dresser in the 6300 block of Newberry Road at Timber Point Apartments when her mother stopped by to feed the children.
Gardner’s boyfriend, Brian Thomas, has also been indicted on two counts of assisting a criminal. He’s accused of lying to hinder the case against Gardner.
Thomas told police he hadn’t been to Chantell Gardner’s house in months. He said Gardner would sleep at his apartment sometimes five days a week and rarely brought the kids. He told detectives he thought the kids were staying with Gardner’s family when she was at his residence.
The last time he saw the children, he told police, was at his home on his birthday in December 2024.
The children’s father lives in Ohio but arrived at Gardner’s apartment the day Skylar was found.
He told detectives the last time he saw Skylar and her brother was around Thanksgiving. He had tried to speak with the children via phone and video chat but Gardner was unresponsive to his requests.
He last saw Skylar via video chat two or three weeks ago. While chatting with Skylar, he said she was lying on Gardner’s chest before falling asleep.
What police say Chantell Gardner told them about Skylar’s death
Just after 6:30 p.m. Jan. 25, Chantell Gardner told police, she called for her young children to eat dinner.
Her son came, but her daughter didn’t.
That’s when she went looking around the apartment and found Skylar’s body underneath a dresser with canvas drawers. The girl was cold to the touch. The dresser, which was said to have fallen on the child, did not appear heavy enough to have caused Skylar’s death, investigators said.
When officers entered the home, there was an overwhelming stench of feces and urine. The floors were covered in feces, overturned furniture, household items, and other debris. Feces was on the walls and furniture.
Chantell Gardner’s 3-year-old son had overt signs of neglect and food disparity when taken to Riley Children’s Health to be examined. Doctors told police the boy’s overall condition was life-threatening.
The living conditions inside the apartment where Skylar Gardner, 2, and her 4-year-old brother were left alone by their mother, Chantell Gardner taken after Skylar was found dead Jan. 25, 2025.
Gardner told detectives that October of 2024 is when she began leaving the children unattended. She said it began by only leaving them when she went outside to her car to “meet up” with Thomas in the parking lot.
She started leaving them alone for other errands, like picking up chicken wings for dinner or sometimes going to the grocery store. She said the children didn’t always behave and could be challenging, so leaving them home was easier, police wrote in court documents.
Eventually, the mother “strayed” away from the home altogether due to the smell inside. She stopped showering at the residence because “the smell before showering would cling to her immediately after showering.”
She said she wiped her son down at most once a week and would shower Skylar once weekly to get the feces and build-up out of her hair.
She told detectives that even when she would stay away from the home, she could bring the children cheeseburgers, chicken nuggets, chips and soft drinks.
Frostbite, bruising and injuries on Skylar Gardner
The living conditions inside the apartment where Skylar Gardner, 2, and her 4-year-old brother were left alone by their mother, Chantell Gardner taken after Skylar was found dead Jan. 25, 2025.
During the police investigation, the temperature of each room inside the apartment was recorded between 46 and 51 degrees.
During an autopsy, a pathologist noted external injuries of what appeared to be multiple bite marks on Skylar Garnder, frostbite on her feet and hands, and round patterned bruising.
Further testing is being done to determine if some of the girl’s injuries happened postmortem.
Skylar was dehydrated and had hair and possibly feces in her stomach. Possible paint chips, hair, and foreign bodies were found in her intestines, the coroner noted in their report to detectives.
As of now, it’s believed that Skylar died of hypothermia.
