Columbia babysitter charged with shaking 1-year-old

COLUMBIA — Police say a babysitter violently shook a 1-year-old girl on Nov. 12, causing a skull fracture and bleeding in the child's brain.

Tiffany L. Zane, 31, has been charged with first-degree assault. Police said Zane has denied any wrongdoing. She is in the Boone County Jail, and her bond has yet to be set.

Firefighters and paramedics responded to a 911 call around 1:44 p.m on the 2000 block of Linden Way to treat an unresponsive child who had allegedly fallen from a bed and had a seizure, a probable cause statement said.

Zane told police the girl had fallen off a bed when Zane went to wash her hands after changing the baby's diaper, the statement said. Zane told police that when she turned around, "E.D.'s eyes were half open and staring straight ahead." Zane then called 911.

After being taken to University Hospital, a doctor told police that "in order to cause this damage there was an extreme amount of force used on the victim, such as shaking the child," the statement said. According to the doctor, the injury "was not consistent with a fall from a bed."

On the day after the incident, Zane called police to tell them she forgot to say that she had accidentally fallen while holding the baby shortly before the incident, but that the baby hadn't hit her head on anything and that the baby seemed unaffected by the fall.

According to Missouri Case.net, Zane has no criminal record in Missouri.

Zane was charged eight days after the incident because further medical tests needed to be run on the child, Columbia Police spokeswoman Jessie Haden said. Inquiries about the child's name and condition were not immediately returned.