Introduction & The Shocking Arrest
We have new details tonight in a heartbreaking story out of Newcastle. Police have charged a woman in the death of 18-month-old Iris Alfera last summer.
20-year-old Alicia Owens is facing a number of charges, including criminal homicide. Investigators with the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office said she planned ways to kill the child. They said she researched it online and looked for things like household products that could cause serious harm to a child. Owens was dating the little girl’s father.
Newcastle, Pennsylvania is located about 50 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. It’s a historic town with small-town charm and wonderful people. On June 25th, 2023, a 911 call from the home of baby Iris’s father would uncover that a monster was living among the good people of Newcastle. What would soon be uncovered would devastate Iris’s family and the entire community.
Remembering Baby Iris Rita Alfera
Iris Rita Alfera was born on December 2nd, 2021, in Butler, Pennsylvania. Her family says that from the moment of her birth, her smile radiated with the brilliance of a thousand sunsets and her eyes sparkled with the wonder of a million stars. She brought joy and laughter to the family that loved her fiercely.
Baby Iris lived with her mother, Emily, and her grandparents. Emily loved to dress herself and Iris in matching outfits. You can see the love and joy Iris brought her mother and her family in these heartwarming photos and videos. Let’s take a moment and get to know baby Iris Rita Alfera.
The Warning Signs & Systemic Failures
Back in the spring of 2023, Iris’s mother became concerned for her daughter when Iris had to be taken to the hospital after swallowing water beads, batteries, and a screw that were found in her excrement. This occurred after visiting with her father and his girlfriend. A criminal complaint was filed with Lawrence County Children and Youth Services, but as we find so many times in these cases, no action was taken by the agency, and visits with the father were allowed to continue. This lack of action on the part of Child Services would lead to a mother’s worst nightmare.
The family created a Facebook page called Iris’s Angels. It’s a beautiful page where they keep the public updated and share so many precious photos and videos of baby Iris. A post from December 30th, 2023, seems to refer to the fact that they were trying to get the court to remove visitation from the father prior to Iris’s death. It reads:
“CPS, judges, and attorneys: make a New Year’s resolution to do better. Save a child’s life. Stop bullying a loving parent into agreeing to a closed-door deal. Look at our happy, smart, and healthy baby’s face. Remember her name and her sweet face for the rest of your careers. Iris Rita Alfera. Say her name out loud. Say her name New Year’s Eve, say her name New Year’s Day, say her name every day of your career, and remember why she isn’t here with us to be cherished as every child deserves to be.”
The Fatal Incident & Medical Findings
On June 25th, 2023, a call to 911 from Iris’s father was placed. He stated she was unresponsive. First responders found Iris breathing but with fixed, glazed eyes. She was taken to UPMC Jameson in Newcastle and then flown to UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, where she died four days later.
An autopsy by the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office revealed Iris died from acetone poisoning, which caused organ failure. Acetone—a solvent used in household products including nail polish remover—can cause nausea, vomiting, and pain, according to Mount Sinai Hospital in New York.
Doctors also found Iris had bleeding in her brain and hemorrhages in both retinas. Physicians with the UPMC Children’s Child Advocacy Center told detectives that any reasonable caretaker would have recognized significant changes in Iris’s cognition.
Conflicting Stories & The Search History
After learning that Iris’s condition might have been the result of child harm, police interviewed her father and his girlfriend, who were caring for her that day. They told police that Iris had vomited several times in the past 24 hours but otherwise seemed normal. At the time of Iris’s medical emergency, police said Iris’s father was at a local grocery store. His girlfriend called him and told him that Iris was lethargic. He told her to call 911 and rushed home. He told police that his girlfriend told him Iris had fallen out of bed but did not hit her head.
Police then interviewed the father’s girlfriend, Alicia Owens, who said she was feeding Iris on the bed that afternoon when the child’s arms and legs cramped up. Owens, who told police she was in nursing training, said Iris immediately fell sideways off the bed to the floor. She said she saw the infant’s chest collapse, started chest compressions, called Iris’s father, and then called 911.
Detectives who visited the house later learned the bed Iris had been on was just a 6-inch mattress on a carpeted floor. The stories were not adding up. Owens was adamant that neither she nor Iris’s father let Iris out of their sight, and that they were diligent about her care. She also claimed the bathroom cabinets of the home were locked.
As part of their investigation, detectives seized Owens’s phone. A search of it revealed months of suspicious web searches beginning in February. They included:
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“What should you do if your child drinks acetone?”
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“If your child digests a lot of nail polish remover, what happens?”
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“In how many cases have kids died from eating water beads?”
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“Beauty products that are poisonous to kids.”
Police found more than a dozen searches on February 28th alone, including “poisonous products to babies,” “can sunscreen poison a 1-year-old baby,” and “what happens if my baby eats nail polish.” On March 8th, police found a search for “symptoms of swallowing a battery” and “what happens if a baby swallows a button battery.” Such searches continued on at least seven other occasions up to several days before Iris’s death.
Fast forward to June 20th, Owens searched: “How does shaken baby syndrome happen?” In the days after the investigation began, detectives also found deleted web searches about how polygraph exams work, how to pass them, and how to beat them. Police had asked Owens to take a polygraph exam when they questioned her, though it was not clear from the complaint whether she complied.
The Prior Ingestion Incidents
The criminal complaint also details the troubling incident three months earlier, in which Iris ingested batteries and water beads while in the care of her father and his girlfriend. On April 1st, Iris was taken to UPMC Children’s by her mother, Emily, after she found more than 20 water beads passed in the child’s stool. Water beads, which come in toys and craft kits, are small, super-absorbent balls. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission warns that swallowing them can have dire consequences for children. Ingested water beads can continue to grow inside the body, causing severe discomfort, vomiting, dehydration, intestinal blockages, and life-threatening injuries that may require surgery to remove.
While at the hospital, Iris passed more water beads along with a screw and three button-type batteries. After four days of treatment, Iris was released to her mother’s care. Her mother, Emily, who had won primary physical custody of her daughter months earlier, returned to court on April 5th, filing a petition for special relief with Common Pleas Judge David H. Acker.
According to the petition, medical personnel from the Children’s Hospital contacted Lawrence County Children and Youth Services for suspected child neglect. The petition stated: “Father’s inability to appropriately supervise the minor child puts the minor child at risk and subject to harm. Mother believes that it is necessary to suspend father’s periods of partial custody pending an investigation by Children and Youth Services.”
However, Judge Acker did not limit Iris’s father’s access. Instead, on April 11th, he issued an order requiring Iris’s parents to attend co-parenting classes. He scheduled a hearing on the petition for May 2nd, which was later continued after court records showed the parties reached an agreement. But according to Emily’s family, there really wasn’t an agreement reached. Emily was told that if she did not continue the visitations, she would be held in contempt of court and might lose custody of Iris completely.
So, even though Iris ingested screws, batteries, and water beads while in her father’s care, his custody was not taken away. Because of this lack of intervention by the state, Alicia Owens continued to have access to Iris. Behind the scenes, she was plotting and planning ways to end the baby’s life—and in less than a month, she would succeed.
The Long Wait for Justice & Community Support
The family had to wait a grueling seven months to see any justice for the heinous murder of baby Iris. As evidenced by posts on the Iris’s Angels Facebook page, they counted the days through their grief as police investigated her death. They knew who was behind it and were tormented by the fact that evil was still going about its life as if nothing had happened.
A post from November 15th, 2023, reads:
“We continue to work closely with the police while the monsters continue to hide behind numerous cameras surrounding their house. They are feeling a bit more comfortable coming and going at their leisure with no remorse.”
A post from December 13th, 2023, reads:
“As the hours turned into 170 days, the reality of our sweet baby Iris being gone becomes more unbearable. To not hear her sweet giggle, her big laugh, or see that beautiful, loving face giving us a giant smile or the side-eye stink-eye is unimaginable. It is unimaginable that a person she should have looked up to and considered a hero in her life did not love or protect her and played a part in her death. It’s unfathomable that any woman could carry so much hate and jealousy to play a part in ending an innocent baby’s life. We will forever ask, why didn’t they just walk away? Why didn’t you find it in your hearts to walk away?”
A month later, the family of baby Iris would finally see some concrete action. On January 10th, 2024, police arrested Alicia Owens, charging her with nine criminal offenses:
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Three counts of criminal homicide
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Two counts of aggravated assault on a victim less than 6 years old
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Two counts of aggravated assault on a victim less than 13 years old
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Two counts of endangering the welfare of children by a parent or guardian
She was denied bail and awaited her legal proceedings. At this time, police state there is no evidence linking Iris’s father or anyone else to her death. However, it appears from the posts by the family on the Facebook page that they may believe otherwise. We can only hope that if the father was involved in any way, justice will be served.
The Newcastle community has rallied strongly behind the little girl who lost her life. To honor her memory and push for systemic change, the group known as Iris’s Angels held a billboard reveal reading “Justice for Baby Girl Iris” near the Dunkin’ Donuts on Mill Street. Organizers handed out child abuse awareness ribbons to the public.
Iris’s family has also created the Iris’s Angels Foundation to spread awareness of child harm and to protect children through education and by fighting to change outdated laws. They periodically host pop-ups in the community, accepting donations and offering merchandise to raise money for the foundation.
Conclusion
Baby Iris brought so much love and light to her family. She will continue to bring love and light to the world as her tragedy tears at our heartstrings and inspires us to be her voice, join the fight, and advocate for change.
This story was incredibly hard to tell. I feel drained, raw, angry, and heartbroken. I grew to know little Iris through her videos and photos, and I felt the unimaginable loss and sadness of her family as I read the words in their posts. I can only hope this video encapsulated the beauty of baby Iris and the incredible love her family had for her. I hope it brings awareness to her need for justice and highlights the cracks in our system that must be filled.
I want to thank Iris’s family for sharing her light and her story with us; it cannot be easy as they find themselves under the heavy weight of grief. Iris’s story isn’t over. She will move mountains, and we can help her by sharing her story and advocating for justice in her case.
Thank you for watching. I pray Iris and her family find justice.
