Florida father arrested 2 years after infant daughter found with baby wipe in throat

A Florida father has been arrested on a manslaughter charge more than two years after the death of his 2-month-old daughter, who police say was found with a baby wipe lodged deep in her throat.

Joseph Napier, 30, has been charged with aggravated manslaughter in the death of 2-month-old Iris Noelle, Indian River County court records show.

Court records do not list an attorney for Napier and a call made to his home on Wednesday rang unanswered. He's being held at the Indian River County Jail on a $750,000 bond and has an arraignment scheduled for Oct. 19.

Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers announced Napier's arrest on Sunday, more than two years after Iris Noelle died on May 28, 2021 in Vero Beach on Florida's Atlantic Coast.

Here's what you need to know about the case:

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How did Iris die?

Napier was home alone with his two daughters on the day of Iris' death. The girl's mother and Napier's girlfriend, identified in court records as Kady Causey, was at work.

Napier told police that he had left Iris and his 18-month-old daughter alone on a couch for about 10 minutes and that the infant was choking when he returned, Flowers told reporters at a news conference on Sunday.

He called 911 to report that Iris was unresponsive and choking, and paramedics walked him through how to give the baby CPR, according to a news release issued by the sheriff's office.

An arriving deputy found Iris unresponsive and turning blue and took over CPR before rushing her to a hospital, where doctors found a baby wipe so far down Iris' throat, they had to use a forceps to remove it, Flowers said.

"Despite the life-saving efforts of everyone involved, the infant did not survive," the news release said.

The investigation

Flowers did not explain why it took investigators two years and three months before they arrested Napier, and department officials declined to answer the question when contacted by USA TODAY this week.

At the news conference, Flowers said he was "confident that our team has done a great job in putting this case together."

"It may have taken us two years to get to this day where we're standing up here but I'm proud of our team," he said. "I'm proud that they take their time and cross all their 'T's dot all the 'I's and they do it the right way to ensure that when we finally make an arrest that we will see justice in these cases."

Manslaughter charge

Though Napier said he had left his daughters unattended for 10 minutes, Flowers said that phone records show that it was at least 30 minutes, and that Napier had been playing on his phone, ordering food and using Facebook during that time.

Causey, Iris' mother, told detectives that the girl's older sister had a fascination with baby wipes, court records show. And Napier told investigators that he believed the 18-month-old had put the wipe in Iris' mouth, Flowers said.

"That's not possible," Flowers said, citing measurements taken by forensic examiners of the 18-month-old's hands and fingers, and Iris' throat.

He also said that police found text messages that Napier had sent to Causey expressing frustration about Iris crying.

About why the charge against Napier is manslaughter, Flowers said: "If I could prove that he intentionally wanted to kill this child, we would definitely have" a more serious charge.

"We do believe that he placed that wipe in the child's mouth," Flowers said. "He knew or should have known that would cause harm to this child. He left the children alone together for over 30 minutes. His neglect of these children absolutely caused the death."

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'Tough two years'

Causey's father and Iris' grandfather, Joe Miller, said at the news conference that the day his granddaughter died, he had heard Napier "screaming at the top of his lungs at the baby: 'Why can't you shut the eff up!'"

Miller said that the past two years have been hard for his family.

"I'm very emotional right now," he said. "It's been a real tough two years for our family ... I can't wait for the case to conclude, just for our family alone. Because we're all upside-down still in this."

He said that he thought an arrest in the case was never going to happen but that he was happy with the investigation.

"They did it the right way, and that's what took so long," he said. "They made a solid case and that's all that matters."

The West Palm Beach TV reported that Napier's oldest daughter, now almost 4 years old, was placed in the care of a family member. Flowers said Causey was in jail on unrelated charges.