Photo credit: Conneaut Police

Law enforcement agencies in Northern Ohio say that they've accumulated enough evidence in the rape and murder of a one year old child to file charges.

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Back on October 7th, the mother of the one year old, Kelsie Blankenship says she found her daughter unresponsive; and was screaming for help as the neighbors called emergency 911 for assistance.

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By the time emergency medical technicians arrived at the home there was nothing that could save one year old Serreniti, and she was pronounced dead.

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Investigators were baffled as to how such a young child could lose it’s life so an autopsy was ordered.

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Conneaut Police say that they initially questioned Blankenship’s live-in boyfriend, 35-year-old Joshua Dale Gurto over the death of the young child as standard protocol but they had no reason to believe he may have been responsible.

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Today however they received the results that the child died from blunt force trauma to the skull, and had been sexually assaulted prior to death.

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"I've been bawling my eyes out all day," Kelsie Blankenship told local news <a href="http://www.wkyc.com/mobile/article/news/local/ashtabula-county/manhunt-on-for-suspect-in-conneaut-infants-rape-and-murder/483310722">WKYC Channel 3</a> from the home she's staying at in the city of Conneaut.

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<img src="https://8ch.net/file_store/54c5a1cb90b185e63c569bec1d14313a138f2c48caac65bcc3d4284f274b56d6.png" style="max-height:640px;max-width:360px;">

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"When I got the news of what happened it devastated me more than you could ever imagine," said Blankenship. "She was a precious girl. She brought me a reason to live.”

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Conneaut Police Detective Mike Sullivan said that the Department is now actively searching for Gurto who they believe is responsible for the rape and murder of the young child.

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Sullivan is angry at himself, that investigators had no idea they had in their custody a vile creature who could both rape and murder a baby.

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"He was here. He was very cooperative through the whole initial process. We opted to release him. There were no charges to keep him at the time," said Sullivan.

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United States Marshals, and several local law enforcement agencies including those in the neighboring state of Pennsylvania are now actively hunting Gurto for his crimes.

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"I would consider him dangerous considering the charges of aggravated murder and rape. Yes. I would consider him dangerous," said Sullivan.

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Gurto’s employer says that he's stunned by all of this, calling him a “model employee" but also saying, "he has some form of a violent history but not recent."

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Blankenship is asking instead of flowers for donations to go to a charity in Ashtabula County called HALO, or Holiday Angels Loving Others.

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"We're going to donate it all to them because all those kids don't get many toys and I'm going to donate all of her toys to the HALO program too. I did it because Serreniti's first Christmas was from HALO," said Blankenship.

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Anyone with information as to Gurto’s whereabouts are asked to contact the Conneaut Police Department at (440) 593-7440 of call emergency 911 immediately.

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