COON RAPIDS, Minn. – Last May, 26-year-old Joshua VanHoutan 
brought his daughter to the emergency room at Mercy Hospital saying that she wouldn’t wake up and her arms were limp. Hospital staff found that the child had retinal hemorrhaging and significant bleeding on the brain, injuries that are consistent with shaking a baby.
In a voluntary statement to police, VanHoutan admitted to shaking his daughter twice because she would not calm down. The girl underwent surgery to relieve the swelling of her brain, but she died a few days later. VanHoutan will be sentenced for his daughter’s murder in September.
