The 2020 Arrest of Anil Azmat – Did he kill Baby Amora?
A parent’s worst nightmare is something happening to their child. You might think that nothing could top that fear or feeling but perhaps you would be wrong. An even worse nightmare would be something happening to your child at the hands of someone you thought you could trust. March 21’st 2020, Anil Azmat, father of two, almost three month old Amora Rae Azmat was in a panic. Amora was not breathing. He rushed to his then Girlfriend Taylor Tambunga who was in the other room. They dialed 911 and paramedics rushed baby Amora to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
When asked what happened, Anil told the police that it was all an accident. He stated that he stood up and fell on the child. It was all an accident. But even then, the police were suspicious. At the hospital, doctors told police that something was not right.
Now, months later on Sept. 11th 2020 the Canadian County District Attorney Eric Epplin has filed Murder in the Frist Degree – Child Abuse charges on Anil Azmat. Now what does this all mean? In the state of Oklahoma, First Degree murder is defined as “ A person commits murder in the first degree when that person unlawfully and with malice aforethought causes the death of another human being. Malice is that deliberate intention unlawfully to take away the life of a human being, which is manifested by external circumstances capable of proof.” It also further defines death during child abuse as “A person commits murder in the first degree when the death of a child results from the willful or malicious injuring, torturing, maiming or using of unreasonable force by said person or who shall willfully cause, procure or permit any of said acts to be done upon the child pursuant to Section 843.5 of this title. It is sufficient for the crime of murder in the first degree that the person either willfully tortured or used unreasonable force upon the child or maliciously injured or maimed the child.”
There are other sub categories but we won’t get into all of that. These are the two that fit in this case. So, police and the district attorney believe that there is enough evidence to disprove the story that Anil has told them. To file first degree murder charges, Police would have to believe that either he planned to murder his child, or he was committing child abuse and that was a direct result of the Childs death. Out of the two, its going to come down to the child abuse. You see, earlier I said that Doctors believed that something was not right. According to the arrest warrant, they stated at the time that baby Amora’s head was “Mushy” and that they thought that she was the victim of child abuse. This would have peaked the police interest in the case. Then, when the autopsy was done on baby Amora, they found several things that didn’t quite line up with Anil’s story. She had a skull fracture, subdural hematoma and old rib fractures.
If you don’t know what a Subdural Hematoma is, it’s a collection of blood outside the brain, it can be very dangerous because it puts pressure on the brain. These are typically caused by severe head trauma.
Now, what’s most concerning to me is the old rib fractures. This is a typical sign of child abuse. But remember. Amora is a few days shy of three months old. Old rib fractures cant be more than a month or two old which means that this baby was experiencing abuse before this incident had occurred.
Among reports that I have read, the police had searched the home and found evidence that Baby Amora was being actively treated for colic. Now I don’t know how many of you have had a colicky baby. But let me tell you, it can be very exhausting. The baby will be very fussy and will cry for no apparent reason. Doctors will do an exam but most are quick to diagnose Colic when it’s evident that nothing appears to be wrong with the baby.
If you put these two facts together you get a troubling view of what may have happened. Now this is pure speculation but if Baby Amora was abused and suffered a rib fracture at the hands of Anil. Taylor, who is Amora’s mother, didn’t know of the abuse, so she might take Amora to the doctor and get some medicine to help treat what they think is colic.
A baby with broken ribs would be fussy and would cry for what might seem like no real reason. It might appear to be colic but I’m willing to bet it was really from the pain of the rib fractures.
Now, what’s not speculation is Anil’s behavior over the last few weeks. Anil’s Facebook page was quite odd. This morning it was taken down. I don’t know if that was Facebook taking it down or if it was from outside help. But he has spent a lot of time posting some spiritual meme’s by the dozens every day since late last month. 90 percent of them were spiritual or motivational. There were just hundreds and hundreds of them. I wonder if he was trying to present as someone who was enlightened or spiritual and not the type of person who could have done such a heinous crime.
Before the page was taken down we were able to take a couple of screenshots of the profile. One picture Anil posted states “Just to be clear #Saveourchildren means Kins in every country and on every continent, not just the US.” Its strange to think that a man who would be accused of murdering his own daughter would be taking time out of his day to post meme’s like this.
This lasted almost to the day the charges came out and the arrest warrant was filed. Then, it was radio silence from then on and in more ways than one. When the police went to arrest him, he had already gone into hiding.
This would go on for days, Taylor pleaded on Facebook using the same hashtag save our children that Anil was meme’ing about weeks before. On the public group Save Our Children Taylor wrote, “HIS NAME IS ANIL AZMAT 33YRS OLD LAST KNOWN LOCATION WAS IN OKLAHOMA HEFNER AREA! HE HAS A WARRANT OUT FOR HIS ARREST 1ST DEGREE MURDER OF HIS 3MONTH OLD DAUGHTER!!! SHARE THIS AND HELP FIND JUSTICE FOR MY DAUGHTER!!!!! And on her personal Facebook page she wrote “PLEASE SHARE THIS TO EVERYONE YOU CAN! HIS NAME IS ANIL AZMAT AND HE MUST BE FOUND!!!!!
Not long after her posts, On September 16th, police found Anil in Oklahoma City and they also arrested the man that was helping hide him, Joshua Iacofano.
What awaits Anil now is Judge Paul Hesse’s courtroom. It will be interesting to see what actually happens in this case. What evidence comes to light. I think that the most important thing in all of this is that there is a chance that we will see Justice for Baby Amora. A child who was betrayed by the person who should have done everything to protect her.
Anyone with information should call the Homicide Tip-Line at (405) 297-1200.
As more information on this case comes to light, we will feature it on this show.
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