Grace White

KHOU-TV, Houston

SANTA FE, Texas — An accused child killer was set free after the county's medical examiner misplaced the evidence needed to convict her, prosecutors said.

In March 2013, Taylor Moore, 4, was critically injured while staying with her father and his girlfriend, Laura Kolb, 38, in their apartment here. Taylor's dad, Kevin Moore, and Kolb had had an argument, police said.

Moore left their apartment to cool off, but Kolb was still livid. Prosecutors in the Galveston County District Attorney Office say Kolb shoved Taylor to the floor and then threw her on a bed; Taylor died March 23, 2013, at Mainland Medical Center in Texas City, and Kolb eventually was charged with murder.

"She was a lot like my own child in a lot of ways," said Marlena Belcher, Taylor's aunt who still struggles with her niece's demise. "She was very dear to me, and it was just such a shock."



Instead of going to trial Monday, Kolb was freed from Galveston County Jail in Galveston, where she had been held for more than 18 months.

The Galveston County Medical Examiner's Office had misplaced crucial pieces of evidence, tissue samples from the autopsy, Assistant District Attorney Adam Poole said.

In July, the University of Texas Medical Branch, which contracts with Galveston County to operate the medical examiner's office, fired Dr. Stephen Pustilnik, who was in charge of the office.



"Based on the timeline the medical examiner's office was giving us, we really had nothing else we could do other than dismiss the charges," Poole said. The possibility that evidence was missing had been known for about a week.

Then came a surprising twist: Workers in the office located the evidence several hours after prosecutors signed the dismissal document.

"Something like what happened today is not fair to our family or to Taylor," Belcher said. "It makes me wonder how many more cases, how many more evidences are out there."

Because of what defense lawyers call extensive lapses in protocol and procedures related to the collection and preservation of evidence in the case of Taylor's death, they released a statement saying that they hope no additional charges will be filed against Kolb.

After investigators review the rediscovered evidence, Poole said his office hopes to refile the murder charges — and move toward a new indictment — by the end of the week.