Mom's Boyfriend Charged in Death of 19-Month-Old Cal City Girl

Police have charged a man in connection with the death of a 19-month-old Calumet City girl who was reported missing Sunday — but found later that day dead in an abandoned grain elevator.

Ameriah Roberson was being babysat by her mother's boyfriend, James Harris, 23, at a home on Chicago's South Side Sunday. He told the girl's mother, 23-year-old Jocelyn Roberson, that he looked away and she was gone, her grandmother, Bernadette Madison, told the Chicago Sun-Times.

NBC Chicago reports that the boyfriend left the girl unattended in her car seat near 35th and Rhodes Avenue.

"Yesterday, when things began to unravel, I even noticed ... there were some loopholes in his story," Madison said.

"Who would do something to a defenseless baby?" Madison said. "If there was a problem, if there was crying, this individual has my number, you've been to my home on numerous occasions ... this did not have to be."

Investigators have not said how they believe Harris killed the child.

The Cook County Medical Examiner said the child died of a "closed-wound head injury." The body was found at about 3:25 p.m. Sunday. She was pronounced dead at the scene near the 14000 block of South Normal Avenue in Riverdale at about 7 p.m.