By  Seamus McGraw

September 14, 2006

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Louisville, Colo. (Crime Library) —  It's been more than six months since Jason Midyette, the infant son of a prominent Colorado family, died in a Boulder area hospital where he was brought 10 days earlier, apparently writhing in pain, his tiny skull fractured, more than two dozen of his bones broken, some of them in various stages of healing.

Boulder Community Hospital

But despite a comprehensive autopsy report, reviewed by several outside pathologists and released more than six weeks ago, which concluded that the 11-week-old infant was a victim of a homicide, authorities in Boulder have not filed any charges in the case, nor have they given any indication that their probe has brought them any closer to determining whether the infant died as a result of an accident, negligence, or something more malevolent.

"It is a very active, ongoing investigation," said Caroline French, a spokeswoman for the Boulder County district attorney's office. Citing Colorado law that bars prosecutors and other law enforcement officials from discussing details of a pending investigation, French declined to characterize the progress of the probe, nor would she speculate about when it might be concluded or whether or when the fruits of the investigation might be presented to a grand jury.

Given the complexities of the case, it may well be that authorities in Boulder and in the city of Louisville, where Jason Midyette spent his short and apparently painful life, are proceeding with understandable caution, say some observers.

But the seemingly slow pace of the probe has raised questions, both on the Internet and on the streets locally, about whether the Boulder district attorney's office, which came under intense media scrutiny after its ill-fated and highly publicized arrest of fugitive school teacher John Mark Karr last summer in the now 10-year-old Jon Benet Ramsey case, may be proceeding too cautiously. Others have questioned whether the family's prominence in the community might also be a reason for the lack of progress.

John Mark Karr

Law enforcement officials have denied that. But as the Boulder County newspaper the Daily Camera wrote in a July 30 editorial, "when it takes...months to determine that a...baby boy who had 28 broken bones including a fractured skull died of homicide, it's not surprising that people start asking questions."

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