Officers recount Gipfert investigation

Last week, during the first and second days of the State of Nebraska vs. Nancy Gipfert law enforcement testified about their investigation into events leading up to the hospitalization of an infant who had been in Gipfert's earlier that day.

Lieutenant Keith Andrew of the Sidney police took the stand for the prosecution.

On Sept. 13, 2011, Andrew received a call from Sidney Regional Medical Center about an injured infant. The hospital reported that the child suffered head injuries that could possibly be abusive, Andrew said. He enlisted the help of various additional Sidney Police officers to gather evidence in the case including officer Curtis Hofrock and investigator Justin Loghry. Andrew also contacted Denver Police to interview the infant's parents, who were at the hospital in Denver with the child.

The day following the incident, Andrew and Loghry went to Gipfert's home for an interview. Gipfert seemed very nervous when they arrived, Andrew said.

"She was almost hyperventilating," he added.

Gipfert provided Andrew with a pre-written statement about the events of the previous day. She didn't know what happened, Gipfert allegedly told him. She consented to Andrew entering he home to take photos. Andrew asked Gipfert for an official written statement, which she provided later that day. The were only slight differences in the two statements, Andrew said.

Andrew planned to return to the Gipfert home on Sept. 15, but received a call from a social worker in Denver who said the infant's condition worsened overnight, so Andrew and Loghry headed for Denver.

Once there, forensic photographers met Andrew at the hospital.

"I noticed [the boy] did not look well," Andrew said. "He was a very sick little boy."

The infant was twitching and his eyes didn't move, Andrew said. The photographers took a series of photos of the boy. After adding additional lighting, Andrew noticed an abnormality in the baby's right chest area. On cross examination, Andrew admitted that doctors never found any outward physical injuries to the boy that he knew of.

Andrew then spoke with the doctors about the boy's injuries and interviewed the parents. Andrew viewed some videos of the infant taken on the day before the incident, saved on his mother's phone.

"Those videos were important because it showed [the boy] a completely different child from when I saw him at the hospital," Andrew said.

On Sept. 16, 2011, Andrew called the attorney general and Health and Human Services about the alleged incident. Gipfert's day care was shut down as a result of this.

Andrew then returned to the Gipfert home and this time he documented the interview with a pin camera. She did not know she was being recorded.

A portion of this pin camera video was shown in court. In the video, Andrew told Gipfert he knew that the infant's injuries had occurred on the afternoon of the 13th, when he was in her care. Gipfert then became emotional.

"I didn't do anything," she said.

Nothing occurred that day that could have caused the injuries, she said.

"I didn't shake him," Gipfert said. He wasn't dropped or hit or pushed by the other children either, she added.

Gipfert ran upstairs to put the infant on the bed, to get his crying out of her ear-range, she said in the video.

Sidney police obtained a search warrant to seize items from Gipfert's home, including the bedspread on which the infant was placed during the afternoon of Sept 13. Police didn't find any blood or saliva stains on it to test. Sidney police not seize any items from the home of the infant's parents.

Andrew met the infant's family in Peetz, where they live, when they returned home from the hospital in Denver. He then took photos of their vehicles to prove that there was no collision that could have caused the boy's injuries.

Andrew admitted that either he or other officers went to the Gipfert home four times during the course of the investigation and he only went to the boy's parent's home once. Andrew confirmed that Gipfert allowed him to come inside to take photos, even though she wasn't obligated to. Sidney police interviewed other children who were at the daycare Sept. 13, but did not interview the infant's older sister, Andrew said. She was only with him the day before the incident and in the early morning of the 13th.

Another witness for the State was Investigator Justin Loghry with the Sidney Police and Western Intelligence Narcotic Group task force. He assisted with many interviews during this investigation. On the day after the incident he accompanied Andrew to the Gipfert residence.

"Nancy appeared very nervous," Loghry said.

He obtained the phone records from cell phones belonging to Gipfert and the infant's parents.

One of the texts from Gipfert's phone read: "Call you from jail" according to Loghry. Loghry confirmed that he never questioned Gipfert about that message.