Joseph “Joe” Napier, 30, and Kady Ann “Kate” Causey, 28, are residents of Vero Beach, Indian River County, Florida, United States. He is Mark Napier and Marna Moody‘s son and Causey is Joseph Mitchell Miller and Amy Causey‘s daughter.
In 2010, Joe graduated from Vero Beach High School. In 2011, he had a domestic battery charge, which was dropped.
In 2012, Joe was adjudicated guilty of second-degree petit theft, allowing an open house party, contributing to the delinquency of a child and trespassing. In February 2015, Kate was arrested after trying to break into a home in Vero Beach.
On March 19, 2021, Kate gave birth to her and Joe’s daughter Iris Noelle Napier. On May 29, 2021, he allegedly shoved a baby wipe down Iris’s throat and called 911 when she became unresponsive.
Indian River County Sheriff’s Office deputies and fire rescue responded to the call. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation was performed but Iris did not survive.
Joe told the deputies that he left Iris unattended on the couch in their residence in Vero Beach for around 10 minutes with his other daughter, who was born in December 2019. When he came back into the room, he saw Iris choking and in distress, according to him.
However, detectives determined Joe’s timeline was inaccurate. A baby wipe was removed from deep within Iris’s throat, which the detectives determined was intentionally placed there by Joe.
According to the detectives, Joe left her two daughters unattended after putting a baby wipe down Iris’s throat. The detectives learned that Joe spent around 30 minutes on his cell phone, playing online games and checking his Facebook account.
After finding Iris had turned blue, Joe waited five minutes before calling 911, the detectives found out. Joe told the deputies that it was his older daughter who put the baby wipe in Iris’s mouth but the deputies determined that was not physically possible after measuring the older daughter’s fingers and hands and Iris’s mouth.
On August 25, 2023, Joe was arrested and charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child. He is being held at the Indian River County Jail in Vero Beach on a $750,000 bond and will be arraigned for the aggravated manslaughter of a child charge on October 19, 2023.
CONAN Daily 