Delco couple charged in death of 2-year-old

A Delaware County couple who had been under investigation for alleged child abuse were charged Friday with third-degree murder in the February beating death of a 2-year-old boy.

Daniel Grafton, 31, of Wallingford, and Shannon Matthews, 30, of Norwood, were also charged with aggravated assault, endangering the welfare of a child, conspiracy, and other crimes in the death of Matthews' son, Mason Hunt.

At the time of the killing, the two were under investigation for an incident in January in which an abrasive salt substance was put all over the boy's body, Delaware County District Attorney Jack Whelan said.

"Both played a very active role in the death of this young boy," he said, adding that Mason died of blunt-force trauma. He said 120 bruises were discovered on the body, many of them pinch marks. They were on the face, head, chest, and genitals, among other areas, Whelan said.

The couple were being held without bail at the county prison.

Matthews also has a 6-year-old child, who is in the custody of the child's biological father, Whelan said.

According to Whelan, the 2-year-old died Feb. 3 after Matthews left Mason in her apartment with Grafton and went to her job at a doctor's office in the morning. Grafton is not Mason's biological father.

Shortly after 3:30 p.m., Matthews said, she left the office - directly below her apartment - and returned home to drop off snacks for her son. She was in the apartment about two or three minutes, she told police, and Grafton told her Mason was in the bathtub. She returned to work.

An hour after she left, Grafton arrived at the doctor's office carrying the lifeless child in his arms and screaming that the toddler was not breathing. He told Dr. Patricia Sutton, for whom Matthews worked, that he had left Mason in the bathtub to get a snack for the boy, and that when he returned, the child was facedown in the tub.

Sutton lay the child on the floor and attempted CPR unsuccessfully. It was then that she noticed bruises on Mason's body.

Investigators determined that Grafton had found the boy more than an hour before he sought help. Mason was taken to Taylor Hospital and pronounced dead.

"This is not a drowning," Whelan said. "This child died as a result of bleeding internally because of so many beatings and so many punches and pinches."