Mother changes story about burned baby

New information in the story of a woman whose 2-year-old daughter died Monday at Hermann Hospital: Though the woman initially claimed the child had fallen into a campfire on a Galveston beach, she now says the child was scalded in a hot bath.

When the mother, 24-year-old Yokandra Lanett Midkiff, brought her daughter Krysdiunbria to the hospital Monday, Krysdiunbria was in a coma and suffering from severe infections from the burns. Doctors weren't able to save her, and Midkiff told them that Krysdiunbria had been burned when she fell into a fire. However, investigators never really bought that: From the beginning, hospital staff said the burns looked like they had been caused by scalding water. So Midkiff — who reportedly made up the campfire story because she was afraid CPS would take her other kids — changed her story. She now claims that she was drawing a bath for herself and her daughter between 7 and 8 p.m. Friday at their apartment in the 700 block of Coolwood in east Houston and that Krysdiunbria climbed into the tub by herself. But something's not quite right with that story, CPS's Estella Olguin said: Though the water was hot enough to cause third-degree burns on Krysdiunbria's body, Midkiff claims the child simply sat in the tub quietly. Investigators don't think that's really what happened. "When [Midkiff] got her out of the tub, her skin was falling off," Olguin said. "She would have tried immediately to get out. The child had to have been in excruciating pain. She had to have been screaming."

Police will examine Krysdiunbria's body to see whether she had any other injuries that might indicate abuse, and they'll also conduct an examination of her brother, who is staying with an aunt.