By  Seamus McGraw

October 26, 2006

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BOULDER, Colo. (Crime Library) —   It's been almost four months since a medical examiner in Boulder determined that little Jason Midyette, the 11-week-old heir to one of the oldest and most prestigious names in the city, died as a result of homicide, his tiny skull crushed and more than two dozen of his bones broken.

And yet, despite an autopsy report that to layman and trained professionals alike seems to cry out that the injuries were inflicted, and perhaps intentionally, no one has been charged in connection with the death. In fact, there is no evidence that a grand jury has even been asked to look at the circumstances surrounding little Jason's death.

Secrecy, of course, is always a factor in child death cases. Prosecutors, police and child protective service workers are all required by law to maintain a rigid confidentiality as their investigations proceed, and potential suspects or their attorneys seldom have any incentive to speak.

That silence, however, does little to quell speculation in such cases.

It certainly hasn't dampened it in Jason Midyette's case, and in fact, may have had the opposite effect, stoking the controversy over both Jason's death and the way authorities have handled it.

Molly and Alex Midyette

While much of the suspicion, detailed in published reports, has focused on the infant's parents, Alex and Molly Midyette, virtually all of the criticism for the slow pace of the investigation has been heaped on the already embattled Boulder County district attorney's office.

Reports here and elsewhere have questioned whether District Attorney Mary Lacy, already stung by criticism over her office's botched handling of the John Mark Karr debacle this summer, has been dragging her feet in the investigation into Jason's death, a probe that is now entering its eighth month.

It has been suggested by some that the DA's office, and to a lesser degree the suburban Louisville Police Department, which handled the initial probe, has been cowed by the Midyette family name, by its wealth and prestige, and may have been outmaneuvered by the lawyers hired by Alex and Molly Midyette even before their infant son was pronounced dead.

But there are others who are more sympathetic. Among them are several veteran child abuse prosecutors who say that in some respects the case underscores the challenges they face when trying to investigate such horrific cases, and to bring justice for the most vulnerable crime victims.

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