Child left alone in high-rise apartment wandered into hallway before fatal fall
ST. LOUIS, MO – A late-night call reporting a missing child ended in tragedy when a 3-year-old boy was found dead outside a high-rise apartment building after falling from an 11th-floor window, leading to criminal charges against his father.
Tarvis T. Phenix Jr., 26, has been charged with one count of first-degree endangering the welfare of a child resulting in death, according to court records tied to the April 10 incident at an apartment complex in the 4400 block of Forest Park Avenue. Police say Phenix had left the child home alone shortly before midnight.
Officers responding to the scene located the boy’s body outside the building after Phenix initially reported him missing. Investigators later determined the child, identified by family as Tarvis Jr., or “T-3,” had fallen from an open window in a common hallway.
Surveillance timeline details final minutes
According to a probable cause affidavit, surveillance footage captured the sequence of events leading up to the child’s death. Police say Phenix left the 11th-floor apartment at 11:52 p.m., took an elevator downstairs, and drove away from the complex.
Roughly 40 minutes later, at 12:36 a.m., the toddler exited the apartment alone and began walking through the floor. The footage shows the child entering an elevator lobby area where two benches sat beneath open windows.
“At 12:44 a.m., the victim climbed on a bench in the elevator lobby,” the affidavit states. “The victim looked out the open window, climbed on the ledge and out of the window, and then fell out of the window. Outside of the window is a straight drop to the concrete at the ground level.”
Investigators said Phenix returned to the complex at 12:51 a.m. and re-entered his apartment two minutes later.
Family raises concerns about building safety
Prosecutors allege Phenix “knowingly acted in a manner that created a substantial risk” to the child’s life by leaving him unsupervised in the apartment, resulting in the fatal fall.
In the days following the incident, family members gathered to remember the toddler, describing him as loved and raising concerns about safety conditions inside the building.
“These hallway windows, they stay open, they don’t lock, there’s no screen, none of that,” said the child’s great-aunt, Andrea Armour.
Authorities have not indicated that the building’s conditions factored into the criminal charge, which centers on the allegation that the child was left alone. The St. Louis Housing Authority, which owns the property, is conducting a separate investigation alongside police.
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