The Cheyenne Police Department is clarifying the status of its investigation into a toddler’s death after an error made during a phone interview.
Lt. Rob Dafoe of the department’s detective bureau, in a Facebook post, corrected a statement made earlier that an autopsy of Athian Rivera, a Cheyenne toddler whose body was found in a dumpster in later February, revealed nothing conclusive about his cause of death.
Dafoe’s posting said the department has not yet received the autopsy report on Rivera, 2.
“An error was made during a phone interview, as we have not received the full autopsy report. We maintain good working relations with our partner agencies and our focus is where it should be, on investigating this case,” Dafoe said.
Cheyenne radio station KGAB reported this week that there wasn’t a conclusive cause of death in Rivera’s case. The report was based on an interview with a department spokeswoman who said the autopsy results had been delivered to the department.
Wyatt Lamb, the boyfriend of Rivera’s mother, was arrested on unrelated charges but investigators are recommending he be charged with murder and aggravated child abuse. However, he has yet to be officially charged and it was unclear if he is still being held in custody.
“As the mother of this missing boy … I have alot to say … especially about all the horrible things people are saying but I wont … cause deep down I know my baby was happy here and never abused,” Kassy Orona, Rivera’s mother, said on the Cheyenne Police Department’s Facebook page the weekend after her son’s death.
