Jasper County Prosecutor Dean Dankelson said charges related to the death of baby Eddie Salazar Jr. will be filed as soon as he receives a preliminary autopsy report from the Boone County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Carthage Police Chief Greg Dagnan said that autopsy, which was scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. today, was still being conducted as of 2:15 p.m Monday.
“All I’m waiting on is the autopsy report and I anticipate I will get that tomorrow,” Dankelson said. “I don’t want to speculate on what kind of charges we will file until I get the autopsy report.”
The primary suspect in the death of the eight-month-old Salazar Jr. is his father, Eddie Salazar Sr., 28, 227 E. Mound St., Carthage, who is currently in the Jasper County Detention Center in Carthage on $100,000 bond. He has been charged with one misdemeanor count of filing a false police report.
Salazar told police late Thursday that two masked men broke into his home, knocked him unconscious and took the baby.
That report touched off a huge search of the area around the home by more than 100 law enforcement officers from a number of jurisdictions as well as firefighters from Carthage and other fire departments, Carthage Street Department personnel and students from the Missouri Southern State University Police Academy.
