Cris Barrish

The News Journal

EDITOR'S NOTE: On Thursday, Sept. 15, 2016, Justin Corbett, a former airman at Dover Air Force Base, received 18 months of probation after being convicted of criminally negligent homicide in the death of 21-month-old Evan Dudley. In the story below, originally published on Sept. 8, 2013, Evan's mother, Nicole Dudley, gives us the backstory: getting the news about her son's injuries while serving overseas, deciding to take her son off life support and then wheeling her son's tiny body down a hospital hallway in a wagon so the coroner could take him. Back then, she was pursuing justice in her son's death as no one had been charged yet.

Nicole Dudley kneels in the grass before the marble headstone bearing the beaming face of her dead son, Evan.

She wipes the black surface with a damp white napkin and tidies up his stuffed animals – a bunny, a turtle, a monkey, a SpongeBob toy. "There you go, little boy. You're all cleaned up," Dudley says.

She plays a recording of her reading the book "All the Ways I Love You," plants a kiss on the cold headstone displaying her child's face and says goodbye.

This is a weekly, solitary ritual at Camden's Odd Fellows Cemetery for Dudley, a 27-year-old staff sergeant at Dover Air Force Base.

Evan was 21 months old when he died, a victim of "blunt force injury to the head" who "was assaulted" Nov. 3 at the home of another airman on the Dover base, the boy's death certificate shows. Doctors couldn't save the little boy with straight brown hair and big brown eyes whose injuries included a detached retina, excessive swelling and bleeding in his brain and numerous bruises on his head.

Nicole Dudley was serving a six-month deployment in the Middle East when her son was airlifted to a hospital near Wilmington. She quickly returned to Delaware in time to lie in the hospital bed with Evan for less than two days before he was taken off life support. She held his body in her arms for hours after his last breath.

It's been 10 months since Evan died, and with each passing day his mother grows more concerned that his killer will not be charged.

"I have been as patient as I possibly can be while waiting for some form of justice to take place in this case," Dudley wrote in an online petition to Attorney General Beau Biden that calls for action.

She wants the public to know the frustration and hurt of a mother who lost her son while serving her country, and the struggle she's waged for information from Biden's office about her boy's death.

"I call the prosecutor at least once or twice a week, and nine times out of ten I have to leave her a message and she never returns my call," Dudley said. "In my opinion, they should be contacting the person they are fighting for."

Some key facts are known about Evan Jonathan Dudley's death.

The toddler known as "E.J" died on Nov. 7, four days after arriving at the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children near Wilmington. The state Medical Examiner's Office classified his death as a homicide and determined the cause was "blunt force injury to the head," the death certificate said.

On the day Evan died, state police investigating his death as a possible first-degree murder descended on the home on the Dover air base where the boy was found to conduct a search "in the matter of Justin Corbett," the police warrant said.

Corbett, 25, is the U.S. Air Force sergeant who had called 911 and said the child "fell down eight carpeted stairs," the warrant said. Police were there to retrieve carpet and padding to help investigators determine "whether the injuries could be consistent with a fall down the stairs," according to the warrant.

When Dudley was sent to Qatar in May with the 436th Logistics Readiness Squadron, a supply unit, Corbett and his wife, Aubrey Corbett, agreed to watch Evan occasionally and let him play with their young son and daughter as part of a family-care plan approved by the Air Force, Dudley said. Evan's primary caretakers were another couple.

Corbett has not been charged with a crime and continues working at the base, where he issues protective equipment to airmen and controls inventories. An Air Force spokeswoman said Corbett would not agree to be interviewed for this article or to provide the name of the civilian attorney he has hired.

Aubrey Corbett said she had "no comment" when reached by phone in her native Texas, where she is staying with the couple's two children and preparing to give birth to their third.

With the homicide investigation by state police and the Attorney General's Office in its 11th month, Dudley said she's been frustrated by the amount of time that has passed and by the prosecutor assigned to her case who rarely returns her calls.

"I feel that it's been placed on the back burner," she said.

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Deputy Attorney General Josette Manning, who heads the agency's Child Victims Unit, countered that rather than neglecting the case, prosecutors have been moved by Evan's death and his mother's agony.

"We all feel for her. His case is a tragedy," Manning said. "And it's important for people to know that this is an active criminal investigation. It's not dormant. We are doing what we have to do to put the pieces of the puzzle together."

Child death investigations are often lengthy and cumbersome, Manning said. She pointed out an indictment last week of a father charged with killing his 3-month-old daughter near New Castle. It took more than a year to file charges in that case.

Prosecutors are aggressively pursuing the Dudley case, she said. "It's a pending investigation, that's the bottom line. It was classified as a homicide and we're pursuing it as such," Manning said.

"Any head trauma case is complex and we often go to outside experts when that's involved," Manning said. "And these things take time, unfortunately. But this is an active case and it's progressing. I certainly understand mom's desire for it to progress faster, but unfortunately we can only do what we can."

Dudley and a friend posted a petition two weeks ago on the www.change.org website seeking "Justice for Evan J. Dudley." The petition was the first public disclosure of Evan's death, which had not been announced by Delaware or military authorities. Addressed to Biden, the petition pleads with him to "make an arrest in my son's case."

The petition has received more than 10,000 signatures and is being shared on other social media sites.

Biden, who has declared child abuse a top priority for his office, did not return The News Journal's calls about the Dudley case.

"Nothing is more important to me than protecting kids," Biden said in a written statement Friday. "There's a lot I would like to say about this heart-breaking case, but because there is still an active and aggressive investigation, the rules of the Delaware Supreme Court prevent me from discussing the details."

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Lead prosecutor Susan Schmidhauser said she has kept Dudley informed of developments, but is not always available to answer her calls and often has nothing new to report.

"I am very sorry that she feels that way," Schmidhauser said of Dudley's criticisms. "I have told Nicole I will keep her up to date when I have something to share with her."

While authorities investigate, the Air Force is dealing with the homicide of a child of one of its own on the Dover base and another airman who is under suspicion. Dudley said Corbett works in another part of the base, and their paths have not crossed since Evan was killed.

"We are greatly saddened by this unfortunate event, and our thoughts are with Staff Sgt. Dudley's family and all those affected by this," wrote Col. Randy Huiss, 436th Airlift Wing vice commander, in response to questions from The News Journal.

Added wing commander Col. Rick Moore: "We are hopeful that the end result will be closure for Staff Sgt. Dudley."

When Dudley learned last winter that she was going to be deployed overseas in May, her most pressing issue was finding someone to care for Evan, who was then 11 months old.

It was the first deployment for Dudley, a Massachusetts native who joined the Air Force in 2005.

"I was expecting it, being in the military. That's what you sign up for," she said. "You almost have to mentally prepare yourself before you even have children. Was I ready for it? No, because nobody wants to leave their child."

She couldn't turn to Evan's father, another airman Dudley dated briefly. She said he broke up with her after she became pregnant and was never involved in the child's life.

Her parents lived in Iowa and though they were willing to help, Dudley decided it would be too much for them or the boy.

Instead, she turned to the baby's godmother, Nicole Payne, and her boyfriend, Dave Holecek. Dudley often accompanied the Dover couple to church or social gatherings.

To ease their burden, Dudley also arranged for Corbett and his wife, Aubrey, to have the child once in a while. She met Corbett while working nights together, and became friendly with his wife when she visited the unit to bring him food.

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Evan often played with the Corbetts' son, who is a few months younger. The couple also has a young daughter. Dudley considered Justin "a very nice person. He seemed to be calm. Good with kids. He was very respectful with me. If I ever needed anything, he would help me out."

After she was deployed in May, Dudley spoke to Evan on Skype every day. He was talking more, improving his vocabulary and could say words and phrases like, "mama" and "I love you," she said.

The base day care center frequently sent emails about his progress to Dudley. She also left behind recordings of her reading his favorite books, so he could always hear her voice.

Evan was sure-footed, walking well by the time she was ready to leave. She had no concerns for his safety and was certain he was in good hands. "Everything was fine," she said.

Holecek, who runs an auto parts store and has two adult children, said he bonded with the toddler, often watching him while his girlfriend took paralegal classes at night.

"It was a chore to get used to picking him up from day care and feeding him, but you get into a routine," Holecek said. "He was very pleasant, very easy to put to sleep."

Holecek said Corbett's wife would occasionally pick Evan up at day care, take him to their home on Avocado Avenue at the base, and return the child at night.

Corbett was sometimes with his wife when they brought Evan. "He seemed OK, laid-back. He talked when he was talked to," Holecek said.

Though Evan's stays at the Corbett home were usually only for a few hours, in early November he stayed with them for a few days because Holecek and Payne traveled to Pennsylvania and could not take the child.

"Aubrey volunteered," Holecek recalled. "She said, 'We may as well keep him.'"

On Nov. 3, the Kent County 911 center got a call about 4 p.m. from Justin Corbett, saying a 21-month-old boy was "unresponsive at his residence," the state police search warrant said.

Corbett, the warrant said, said Evan "fell down eight carpeted stairs and became unresponsive."

An ambulance rushed the boy to the emergency room at Kent General Hospital but his injuries were so severe that he was airlifted to the children's hospital.

Doctors found retinal detachment, hemorrhaging behind the eyes, bruises on his head and excessive brain swelling and bleeding, the warrant said. He was comatose, had virtually no brain function and was kept alive by a breathing tube.

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About 7,000 miles away, Dudley sat with friends in the sweltering heat of the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar, just days away from her scheduled return home to Evan. She heard her sergeant bark her name twice. She could sense the urgency in his voice.

"He came over and sort of took my arm and said, 'I have to talk to you,'" Dudley said. "He looked at me and said, 'Evan's being airlifted to a children's hospital.'"

Her sergeant couldn't give her more information, so the hysterical mother called Aubrey Corbett, who said she was driving then to the hospital 50 miles north of Dover. Aubrey said she had been at the store when Evan was injured, Dudley recalled, adding that a detective later told her Aubrey said she was at Wal-Mart.

"I was screaming and crying, 'How would you let this happen to my little boy? You are supposed to take care of him like I would,'" Dudley said. "She said, 'He told me he fell down the stairs and he didn't see what happened and didn't know what happened.'"

After she arrived at the hospital, Aubrey told her the boy was in a coma and being kept alive with a breathing tube. Dudley was arranging an urgent flight back home to her son.

"I kept telling her, 'Don't let my son die.'"

Nearly two days later, after a series of sleepless flights, Dudley arrived in Philadelphia, where a relative drove her to the hospital, saying little about what she would encounter.

At duPont, the doctor told Dudley her child was not responding to any neurological tests, she recalled. "He said that when the EMTs got to the house, he was in cardiac arrest and they actually had to bring him back to life," she said.

The doctor – Dudley said she can't remember his name – said Evan's injuries were no accident. Her baby was assaulted.

"He said his injuries were so severe that he would have had to fall from an eight-story window to sustain the kind of injuries he had," Dudley said.

The stunned mother was ushered into Evan's room, where she found the dying boy surrounded by loved ones.

"I went right to him and dropped to my knees," she recalled. "He was just laying there in his bed with all these machines attached to him and it didn't even look like him because his head was so swollen. I didn't move and stayed there for the next two days I had with him."

The exhausted, sobbing mother rubbed his legs and his hair, kissed his face and his little toes.

"Please just keep fighting," she pleaded. "You have to come back to me."

Nothing could save Evan.

On Nov. 7, after doctors conducted more tests and told her he had no brain function, she decided to take her son off of life support.

"At that point I wanted to die. I wanted to take his place," Dudley said.

She invited her family and friends into the room to "say their last goodbye." After everybody left a nurse came in to remove the tube.

"I slapped her hand and said, 'I have to do this myself.' Then I held him for like seven hours."

By then Evan had been pronounced dead and she was told the coroner had arrived. The staff told her Evan's body would have to be handed over.

She bathed her boy's lifeless body with a warm bucket of water, and dressed him in a pair of pajamas and a shirt that she had bought as a present for him overseas, before she received the horrific news. The shirt said, "My mommy was in Qatar."

She placed her dead son inside a body bag, zipped it up and gently laid the tiny corpse in a red wagon that she covered with a blanket. She walked the wagon down the hall to a door, where she gave the handle to someone on staff who took the body to a waiting coroner.

As the months have marched on, through winter and spring and nearing the end of summer, Dudley has grown weary of being told by Schmidhauser to "be patient" and fears that no one will be held accountable for Evan's death.

She spends her days working at the base, overseeing training for her supply unit. At night, she's usually in her off-base apartment, where photos of Evan and her blanket the walls. She spends many nights watching videos of her only child. On Sundays, she visits his grave.

While Dudley waits for prosecutors and police to solve the case and hopes his killer is sentenced behind bars, other mothers at the base have rallied around Dudley, tying blue ribbons on bushes, mailboxes and house columns in honor of the slain child.

"It's the ribbon of justice," she said, "for Evan."

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