No bail for Peabody tot murder suspect

SALEM – Jennifer Ward, the 37-year-old Peabody mother charged with shaking her 9-month old daughter to death showed no emotion Wednesday as the prosecutor insisted that a Superior Court judge hold her without bail, saying Ward’s baby was the victim of “three acute attacks,” involving slamming, shaking and twisting of her limbs.Assistant District Attorney Kate B. MacDougall gave a detailed summation in Salem Superior Court of her case to Judge Howard J. Whitehead, while asking that Ward be held on a no-bail status pending trial in light of her first-degree murder indictment and the circumstances of the case.”This is a particularly strong case. We have someone here with drug dependencies, instability and thoughts of suicide,” said Whitehead as he ordered Ward held without bail pending her trial.In asking for no bail, MacDougall said Ward gave birth to her daughter, Jocelyn Mae Ward-Anderson, on Feb. 22, at Salem Hospital. Ward was 33 weeks pregnant when her child was prematurely born, weighing less than four pounds.At the time, Ward acknowledged methadone use throughout her pregnancy, but denied having used narcotics. However, tests revealed the presence of cocaine, benzodiazpam and marijuana in Ward and cocaine in Jocelyn when she was born, MacDougall stated. Ward had admitted a history of addiction to prescription painkillers.In the beginning of March, Jocelyn was sent home with her father, Robert Anderson, 45, of Lynn, and with Ward, but was under the supervision of the Department of Social Services with the understanding that the baby would undergo drug treatment.On March 29, DSS received a second report alleging neglect on the part of both parents due to their drug use. Custody of Jocelyn was given to DSS and she was placed with her paternal grandmother, Mary Johnson, in Lynn, where she remained until early July.Ward successfully completed several drug treatment programs and her child was legally returned to her on July 18.In the meantime, Robert Anderson was put in prison having violated his parole because of a positive drug test.MacDougall told Whitehead that although the infant was, “extremely small,” the child was healthy, doing extremely well and meeting all its markers for a normal developing six-month-old.On Nov. 18, Ward and her daughter returned to her new apartment at 30 Keyes Drive in Peabody after seeing Ward’s parents in Kennebunk, Maine.That afternoon, Ward lent her car to Jocelyn’s paternal cousin, who observed the infant being normal and happy.Just after 4 p.m., Ward received a call from the child’s father from prison and he could hear his daughter making normal baby sounds.Ward expressed irritation and complained to him that the baby was “always under her feet,” but never expressed any concern about her daughter’s health, MacDougall reported.Then, some time after midnight on Nov. 19, a family friend of Ward arrived at her home as planned.He could hear Jocelyn crying upstairs and checked on the child, who appeared not to be awake. Ward then emerged from the bathroom and said that Jocelyn had been crying all night. The friend brought the infant downstairs, noticing discoloration to her forehead. Within minutes Jocelyn began vomiting and lost all consciousness.They brought Jocelyn to Lahey Hospital just after 2 a.m. She was rushed to Children’s Hospital in Boston where they determined that her brain was undergoing massive swelling, and that she had bleeding on her brain.The infant underwent emergency surgery to relieve pressure on her brain, but her prognosis was grim.MacDougall, in a quivering voice, also described bruising that was visible on both the child’s upper arms as well as her belly. She said Jocelyn had a skull fracture in the area of her forehead and unhealed fractures to her shoulders, elbow, left forearm and vertebrae.On Nov. 21 Jocelyn was declared brain dead, but was maintained on life support for the next two days so her organs could be donated.Revealing retinal hemorrhages and bleeding along