Was tot's death accidental?

Little McGuire Miller should have started kindergarten this month. Instead, the occasion was marked only by another volley of correspondence and inquiry into the investigation of his death.

A Deseret Morning News examination of McGuire's death shows much disparity among family members, police and medical experts who've come to know the case. Each person's connection to the boy colors his perspective.

McGuire's grandparents have spent four years badgering authorities for justice.

The boy's mother still can't come to terms with how he died.

A Washington County prosecutor is sticking to his guns — he won't try a case he says he can't win.

McGuire's father says St. George police botched the investigation from the start; and a police investigator acknowledges mistakes but says detectives have done all they can.

Finally, there is the definitive statement of a coroner who stands by his autopsy report: "It is my opinion that the death of McGuire Tyler Miller is due to blunt force trauma of the head due to child abuse."

The truth, as is so often the case, probably lies somewhere in the gray area between these perspectives.

Rob Parrish is an expert on child abuse homicide and an attorney in the Utah Office of the Guardian ad Litem. He has reviewed McGuire's case.

"These are pretty severe injuries, and they need to be explained," Parrish said. "Something pretty big happened to this child. Somebody who had adult strength had to have been involved."

Meanwhile, four years have passed in which police and prosecutors could have formed a theory about how the toddler suffered a 3-inch skull fracture that left him brain dead.

But there is no theory — at least not one prosecutors are willing to take to a jury. There is only a dead boy, medical evidence, and the word of the only adult with the child at the time he was injured. No arrest has been made.

The four-year statute of limitations has nearly passed in the case deemed a homicide by the coroner who examined McGuire's 26-pound body.

Some facts are not in dispute.

Something terrible happened the night of Dec. 5, 2001, in the Washington County apartment of John Sandberg and Kori Lourenco Sandberg.