Buncombe County parents charged with infant's death: records reveal investigation details

ASHEVILLE — Court documents reveal more details about the first-degree murder case of two Buncombe County parents charged with the death of their infant child.

Around 2:30 p.m. on June 28, 2022, Diandra Haleigh Fuhr-Farlow called 911 from her home on Big Wheel Drive in Asheville, reporting that her 2-month-old daughter was unresponsive, according to a search warrant application from a Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office detective obtained by the Citizen Times.

When Emergency Services arrived, they began life-saving measures and took the child to Mission Hospital, where she died. A doctor at Mission determined that the victim had a broken left clavicle, several broken ribs, a broken right arm, several burn marks around her face and appeared to be dehydrated, according to the document.

About one month earlier, the daughter was seen at Mountain Area Health Education Center’s Family Health Center on Hendersonville Road and was given a “clean bill of health,” the parents stated to detectives, as written in a search warrant.

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In an interview with detectives, Fuhr-Farlow said the child’s father, Nickolas Shane Stephenson, would hold the victim by her legs and “move her back and forth,” causing her to cry. She also said he would hold her by the feet and shake her, which also made her cry, according to court documents.

“Ms. Fuhr-Farlow explained of an incident where she observed Mr. Stephenson choking the victim child,” detectives wrote in the search warrant.

The document also said both Fuhr-Farlow and Stephenson recounted to detectives that the infant had hit her head on a bathtub faucet after a bath. They tried to treat her injury with a heating pad, which left burn marks on their child’s face.

Stephenson, 35, was originally charged with second-degree murder and negligent child abuse inflicting serious bodily injury on June 28, 2022. Fuhr-Farlow, 30, was charged the same day with felonious child abuse inflicting serious bodily injury.

However, about a month later, their charges were upgraded to first-degree murder.

“Based on the totality of the facts from our investigation to include the findings from the preliminary autopsy and after consultation with the district attorney, we have upgraded the charges against the parents of Riley,” said Maj. John Ledford in a news statement from the sheriff’s office.

Stephenson and Fuhr-Farlow remain in the Buncombe County Detention Facility without bond.

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In a motion for a bond hearing filed Sept. 13, defense attorney Jack Stewart stated Fuhr-Farlow “has been deprived of her liberty for an entire year with no imminent trial date or reasonable connection to the instant crime(s) based upon discovery provided by the State.”

The Citizen Times reached out Oct. 20 to Stewart and Stephenson’s attorney, Dustin Dow, but did not immediately receive a response.

The Citizen Times previously reported that, according to arrest warrants, Stephenson assaulted his 2-month-old daughter June 28 by inflicting multiple burns and broken bones that led to her death. Another warrant for Fuhr-Farlow says she "did intentionally and neglectfully leave (the) juvenile in a serious injured state that led to her death."

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Ryley Ober is the Public Safety Reporter for Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Email her at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @ryleyober

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Buncombe County parents charged with murder in infants death