911 calls reveal father’s concern in toddler’s death

On July 14, Richard Grimes, a Marine stationed in Virginia, made a frantic call to Horry County dispatchers after his mother-in-law took his 17-month-oold son to the Conway Medical Center with life-threatening injuries.

The baby, Richard “Aydain” Grimes, died two days later at the Medical University of South Carolina from a severe head injury.

In the 911 calls, Grimes tells dispatchers that he’s concerned for his son’s safety in the hands of his wife’s mother, “I don’t know if you can help me or not; my mother in law, my wife’s mother just took my son to the hospital and he has a fractured skull and he’s been staying with her for a little bit. Is there any way I can get protection to keep her away from him now?“

Grimes went on to tell dispatch that his wife left their son with the baby’s grandmother, 37-year-old Julia Gorman, while the two were out of town for a while.

In the call, Grimes said Gorman is trying to blame him and his wife for the injuries that night and that the skull fracture could be old injuries from the baby, “falling off the bed,” Grimes told county dispatchers.

“She’s trying to put blame on my wife and I, but my wife; I haven’t seen my son in almost 3 months and my wife hasn’t seen him in over a month, so I’m taking the proper precautions and she says she’s going to the courthouse tomorrow to get custody of him and try and take him away from us,“ Grimes said in the 911 call.

“I just find something fishy about this and I want her away from my son,” Grimes continued.

Authorities will not release any details of the child’s injuries or how police think Gorman caused them.

On July 18, two days following the toddler’s death, Horry County Police charged Gorman and her boyfriend, 30-year-old Robert Andrew Palmer, in connection to the death.

Gorman faces homicide by child abuse charges, and Palmer faces child neglect charges because police said he knew about the injuries and failed to report them and failed to get the child medical attention.

A county magistrate set bond on Palmer at $100,000 on July 19 and ordered a Department of Social Services investigation into his 5-year-old son before he can have any contact with him.

The judge did not set Gorman’s bond because of the possible life sentence she faces if convicted of the murder.

Gorman remains jailed as of this posting awaiting a bond hearing on the charges.

No word yet on a trial date for the pair.