Michael James Penton was a two-month-old infant who died in Killeen, Texas, on November 26, 1984. The Bell County medical examiner concluded the child had been violently shaken to death in what was described as a fit of rage because he would not stop crying. The infant’s father, David Elliott Penton, then a soldier stationed at Fort Hood, was arrested and charged; he pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to five years in prison and honorably discharged from the U.S. Army.

While out on bond appealing the conviction, David Penton fled Texas and became a fugitive. He was later arrested in connection with other crimes, including the 1988 kidnapping and aggravated murder of a nine-year-old girl in Ohio, and was convicted. In 2003 he was indicted in the mid-1980s Dallas-area killings of three young girls; he took a plea deal in 2005 and is serving consecutive life sentences. The death of Michael James Penton was the first recorded fatality linked to his father’s later pattern of violent crimes.

If anyone knew Michael or has information about his death in Killeen in 1984, please share what you know.