Couple Accused of Involvement in Death and Injury of Children at Spirit Lake, ND

SPIRIT LAKE, ND (trfnews.i234.me) Tammy and Erich Longie Jr. has been charged ini U.S. Federal Court in connection to the death of 1 child and injury of 3 other children.
federal prosecutors have now just charged uh tammy and eric longie jr of rural tokyo north dakota with five charges uh each uh facing two charges of assault resulting in a serious bodily injury and two charges each of simple assault and one charge of offenses committed within indian country five-year-old raven thompson was found deceased and seven-year-old zane thompson was seriously injured here is the statement on the criminal complaint from an fbi agent quote on may 6 i responded to the spirit lake reservation for a report that a five-year-old female child was found deceased by her foster mother tammy longi the residence is located within the exterior boundaries of the spirit lake reservation according to a report provided me by the spirit lake emergency medical services ems reached the residence at 6 48 a.m after determining that resuscitation was futile ems personnel told tammy and her husband eric longie jr that child one was dead the ems report noted the foster parents showed no emotional signs that one would typically typically expect to see from a caregiver according to information provided to me by the bureau of indian affairs officers first to arrive at the residence they found more than a dozen adults and children at the residence after law enforcement cleared the occupants from the residents a spirit lake tribal social service investigator found a seven-year-old male child in the back of a red suburban located at the residence the investigator was the concerned about child ford’s condition and had taken him to the emergency room at in devil’s lake records provided to your affidavit indicate child 4 was examined by providers who determined he needed to be transformed transferred to sanford hospital in fargo as he required a higher level of medical care for injuries providers suspected to be caused by non-accidental trauma on may 6 child 4 was transferred to sanford hospital in fargo by air ambulance on may 8 the investigators spoke with child 4’s attending physician who explained that child 4 had bruising over his body consistent with abuse the child remained an inpatient at the pediatric intensive care unit on may 11 the child was stable enough to be transferred out of pediatric intensive care unit but as of this date he remains an inpatient at sanford hospital on may 6 bia special agent thomas baker and the agent interviewed tammy during the interview tammy said a total of 13 people lived at the residence there were five adults comprised of tammy eric and their adult children according to tammy there were also eight minor children living in the house who ranged in age from 11 months to 12 years old tammy said he she and eric had been foster parents for child one and child four since uh july 23 of 2019. tammy told agent baker and the fbi agent that for the past couple of days child one would not eat much and was complaining about her stomach and would not use the bathroom and was moaning tammy stated that she woke up around 6 a.m on may 6 2020 and did not see child one she yelled outside for child one and then went downstairs to the basement tammy did not want to go downstairs because she had a funny feeling but did not know why tammy saw child one lying on the floor she called child one’s name but there was no answer then tammy touched her and she felt cold tammy ran upstairs woke eric and told him that she thought child one was dead tammy then called for totten dispatch and reported she thought child one was dead tammy denied abusing the children stating that she would only hit the children open-handed on the butt put them in time out or make them go to bed early tammy denied seeing anyone else in the house of being physically abusive to the children on may 6 bia special agent baker and the fbi agent also interviewed eric longi during the interview eric stated that he normally stays in his room all day because he has an injured foot eric and child one had been acting differently and she said she didn’t want to eat eric last saw the children at 3 00 or 3 30 a.m on may 6. eric checked his phone then peeked in on the children and saw they were both sleeping he went back to sleep and tammy woke him up eric went downstairs eric checked child one to see if she had a pulse eric then stated if anybody says that anything about the body being touched yeah i had to touch because they had to see if if she if she was eric also said she had no pulse was cold and white stuff in her mouth eric told tammy to call the cops eric denied physical abuse of the children and denied seeing anyone else physically abuse child one and child four he said he did not know why child four would have any injuries uh several other people were also interviewed on may 12 uh three of the minor children who live in the home um including child two and three were forensically interviewed child two referred to tammy as either uh tammy or mom and eric as dad child two said tammy hits us in the legs back arms and butt child two further stated that tammy hits them when they do not go to sleep she also kicks them in the butt and head a child two said that dad sees it when tammy kicks them and starts laughing child 2 cries when the mom kicks him child 2 stated that child 1 and child 4 were the children that were hurt and tammy would hit them tammy would hit child 1 anywhere in anywhere and in the head because she did not listen during the interview child 2 disclosed that eric would spank child 1 child 1 and 4 were the last people that child 2 saw getting hurt they were in dad’s room child three said tammy hits child three as well uh as child two and child one child three said tammy hits them in the back and it hurts tammy hits child one when she does not listen according to child uh three child one would get spanked hard and cry when child one cried uh they would get spanked more and cry louder during the same interview child three said eric spank child four hard on the back and he cried child four got into trouble because he kept crying so he was spanked by tammy and had to go outside and stand on the porch tammy told child four when he could come back in the house if child 4 tried to come back in the house early then he would have to stay outside longer the third child interviewed may 12th denied being physically abused by tammy and eric and denied tammy and eric physically abused anyone in the house after the forensic interviews on may 12 physical examinations were performed on child two and three the medical examiner noted injuries consistent with physical abuse on both children child four was interviewed at the sanford hospital in fargo and it was determined that he was men medically and mentally unstable during the interview child four disclosed that tammy and eric spanked him on the butt eric spanked him the mouth most child four said eric would hurt him by spanking him on the butt eric would also put child four outside until eric would call him back inside eric also spanked child one dr mark copeland md performed an autopsy on child one received a copy of dr copenan’s preliminary autopsy result the provisional findings include blunt force trauma of the head and neck blunt force trauma of the chest and abdomen blunt force trauma of the extremities the report indicates preliminary how injury occurred assault by others uh the conclusion uh based on the facts and information contained in this affidavit it is respectfully submitted that probable cause exists to believe that violations of title 18 united states code section 1153 offenses committed within indian country have been committed by eric langey jr and tammy longi aka tammy one bear specifically there is probable cause to believe eric and tammy committed two violations of uh simple assault and two violations of assault re resulting in serious bodily injury i’m Neil Berg reporting for trfnews.i234.me