Babysitter arrested after toddler found buried in shallow grave

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) — A Warsaw man has been arrested on a preliminary charge of murder in the death of his girlfriend’s 2-year-old he was allegedly babysitting after police found the toddler buried in a shallow grave in a backyard.

Police were called just before 10:30 p.m. Thursday to a home at #53 EMS C17 Lane on Big Chapman Lake northeast of Warsaw on a custody complaint. There, 29-year-old Christopher A. Grimmett told investigators he was babysitting his girlfriend’s 2-year-old daughter, young Adalin P. Stamper, earlier Thursday but the girl’s maternal grandmother had picked up the child.

Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. Chad Hill said deputies quickly debunked that claim, and began to “back-track” Grimmett’s path Thursday night.

It led officers to Grimmett’s brother’s home at 1835 Sue Ave. on Warsaw’s west side, where Hill said he’d been earlier in the afternoon with Adalin. There, in the back yard of the home, sheriff’s deputies found a shallow grave where Adalin’s body was uncovered, Hill said.

The Kosciusko County Coroner was called to the scene. The cause of Adalin’s death is still under investigation pending an autopsy, Hill said. Scene technicians with the Kosciusko County Major Crimes Task Force were also called out.

Hill said Grimmett made a statement to Kosciusko County Sheriff’s deputies that led to his arrest. He did not say what the statement included. Grimmett is being held on a prosecutorial hold for murder in the Kosciusko County Jail.

Grimmett has prior convictions for resisting arrest, drugs and battery by bodily waste, court records show. He’s also engaged in a custody battle for his own children, according to court records.