The Guilford County case shifted from a reported cardiac arrest to a homicide investigation before the child’s father was arrested.
GREENSBORO, N.C. — A two-year investigation into the death of a 5-month-old boy in Brown Summit has led to murder and child abuse charges against the child’s father, marking a major turn in a case that began with a late-night call for a baby in cardiac arrest.
The case highlights how child death investigations can take years to move from medical emergency to criminal prosecution. Guilford County deputies say Travis Jaamal Sistrunk, 37, was arrested March 20 after detectives, the state medical examiner and local prosecutors reviewed the infant’s death and concluded it was a homicide. The public record remains thin, but officials say the child died after emergency crews responded to a home on Hickory Court on Dec. 8, 2023, and that arrest warrants cite traumatic head injuries.
The known timeline starts on the night of Dec. 8, 2023, when deputies were sent to a home in the 200 block of Hickory Court in Brown Summit. Authorities have said the call involved a 5-month-old baby reported to be in cardiac arrest. By the time deputies arrived, Guilford County EMS workers were already trying to save the child. The infant was taken to a hospital but did not survive. Sheriff’s officials then opened a death investigation. At first, the case was treated publicly with caution, and authorities disclosed almost nothing about the circumstances inside the home. That restraint lasted for months, then years, as investigators worked behind the scenes. Local reports later showed that the child’s death had been ruled a homicide, changing the meaning of that first emergency call and setting the stage for criminal charges.
The charges filed this month suggest investigators believe the baby’s injuries were not accidental. Arrest warrants described by local outlets say the infant suffered traumatic head injuries. Sistrunk, whom authorities identify as the child’s father, was charged with felony first-degree murder and felony intentional child abuse inflicting serious injury. Still, many of the most important questions remain unanswered in public. Authorities have not said what specific acts they believe caused the injuries, whether anyone else was in the home, or whether witnesses gave statements that helped build the case. They also have not released autopsy findings in detail or described the precise timeline between the child’s distress at home and the hospital death. What officials have made clear is that the medical and investigative review took time and eventually produced enough evidence for an arrest.
That long review appears to have depended on several layers of official scrutiny. Sheriff’s officials said the Major Crimes Investigative Unit worked with the North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and the Guilford County District Attorney’s Office. That kind of coordination matters in infant death cases, where medical conclusions can shape whether a case remains unexplained, is classified as abuse, or leads to homicide charges. In this case, the sheriff’s office did not announce a quick arrest after the child died. Instead, the investigation stretched past 2024 and 2025 before charges came in March 2026. The delay may frustrate those looking for swift answers, but it also signals that investigators and prosecutors were not willing to move ahead publicly until they believed the medical record and legal case were strong enough to support serious felony charges.
Now the case enters a new phase in court. Sistrunk is being held without bond in the Guilford County Detention Center in Greensboro. Officials said his first appearance was scheduled for March 23 at 2 p.m. The murder charge places the case among the most serious criminal prosecutions in the county, and prosecutors will now have to begin presenting the evidence that was largely hidden during the investigative stage. Court filings, detention hearings and later proceedings may reveal more about the child’s injuries, the events inside the home and the basis for charging the father. For now, no other arrests have been announced, and the sheriff’s office continues to describe the investigation as ongoing. That wording suggests there may still be evidence to collect, records to review or additional details to sort out before the case becomes more public.
Until then, the public story is defined by a sharp contrast: a brief emergency call on one winter night and a slow, deliberate investigation that lasted more than two years. Brown Summit is left with the bare outline of a tragedy that moved from an ambulance response to a homicide file and finally to a jail booking. The sheriff’s office has released no extended narrative, no courtroom account and no detailed explanation of the evidence. But the arrest itself signals that investigators believe the child’s death was not only criminal, but severe enough to support both murder and felony abuse allegations. The next stage will test that case in open court, where the facts that stayed private during the investigation are more likely to emerge.
As of now, the defendant remains jailed without bond, the homicide investigation is still active, and the next meaningful public developments are expected to come through court proceedings in Guilford County.
Author note: Last updated March 24, 2026.