With the father jailed and facing extradition, a child death investigated for more than a year is entering the court system in Volusia County.
DELAND, Fla. — A Jacksonville man accused in the death of his 5-week-old daughter is being held without bond as Volusia County authorities move a long-running infant homicide investigation into its next legal stage.
The defendant, Dajuan Patrick, 27, faces an aggravated manslaughter of a child charge after investigators said his daughter, Dahlia Siebenhaar, died from traumatic injuries in December 2024. What matters now is not only the allegation itself but the posture of the case: custody has been secured, the prosecution has begun and the evidence behind the warrant is poised to face closer scrutiny in court.
By the time the public learned of the arrest, several procedural pieces had already fallen into place. Patrick had been picked up in Jacksonville on a Volusia County warrant, and the sheriff’s office said he was being held pending extradition. Follow-up local reporting said prosecutors sought pretrial detention and that he remained jailed without bond. Those steps may sound routine, but they tell readers where the case really stands: not at sentencing, not at trial, but at the point where the state has named a charge, locked down the defendant’s custody status and begun to transfer the case from investigators to judges and lawyers.
Only after that current court posture is understood does the underlying allegation come into focus. The sheriff’s office said the infant was hospitalized on Dec. 2, 2024, after she was found unresponsive. She never regained consciousness and was removed from life support on Dec. 12. Investigators later said interviews, medical records and other evidence showed Patrick shook and spanked Dahlia, causing fatal injuries. The public record at this stage does not provide a full affidavit-length narrative of what happened in the home before the hospitalization, which means the state’s summary remains broader than the detailed courtroom proof that could come later.
The medical findings described by authorities are the core of the accusation. Deputies said Dahlia suffered extensive head trauma, broken ribs, bruising across her body and retinal hemorrhages. They said the injuries reflected shaking and being held with extreme force. Dr. James Fulcher, the Volusia County chief medical examiner, later ruled the death a homicide. In practical terms, that ruling gave prosecutors the medical anchor they needed for a felony filing. It also explains why the case could advance even after a lengthy gap between the child’s death and the father’s arrest.
The public response from law enforcement has emphasized accountability over spectacle. Sheriff Mike Chitwood said the arrest would not bring Dahlia back or give her “the childhood she deserved,” but said authorities were speaking for her because “her life mattered.” That statement was short, but it framed the state’s case in moral as well as legal terms. News outlets repeated it because it captured the official position after a child death that had remained unresolved in public for more than a year. Even so, major litigation questions remain open, including whether the defense will contest causation, challenge witness accounts or seek to narrow expert testimony.
The next visible steps are expected to be formal appearances in Volusia County and the release of more court paperwork showing how prosecutors intend to prove the charge. Until then, the case is defined by three facts already on the record: a baby died after severe injuries, a homicide ruling followed and the father is now jailed while the prosecution moves ahead.
The case has advanced to the custody-and-transfer stage, with fuller hearings and filings expected to shape what the public learns next.
Author note: Last updated April 7, 2026.