Six-year-old Jessie Taylor McCormack of Alexandria died in January 2023 after being beaten, according to authorities. He was taken to a local hospital unconscious for a reported child-abuse case and then transferred to a Birmingham hospital for higher-level care; he died two days later. Medical and investigative findings indicated he had been struck with a belt or similar object and by hand.

Jessie was in his father’s custody at the time. His father, 29-year-old Joshua Clark, was at the hospital when officers arrived and was initially arrested on aggravated child abuse; after Jessie’s death the charge was upgraded to capital murder and Clark was held without bond at the Calhoun County Jail. This was the family’s second fatal child abuse case: Jessie’s 18-month-old brother Enzo McCormack was murdered in 2019. Enzo’s death led to capital murder charges for the boys’ mother, Samantha McCormack, and her then-boyfriend Robert Elmore; records from that case noted prior signs of abuse to Jessie and the children had been returned to their parents’ custody.

Does anyone who knew Jessie or the family have information that could help clarify what happened leading up to his death?