London Clayborne was 2 years old when she died on the evening of Monday, May 5, 2014, after being hurt near the 2900 block of Denham Circle in South Baltimore. More than two months later, on July 17, the medical examiner ruled that she had died of blunt force injuries. The Baltimore Police Department investigated, and the Baltimore Sun's homicide database lists her death as a homicide.
At first her death looked like a terrible accident. According to police, shortly after 7 p.m.
on May 5 her mother flagged down a patrol officer on Denham Circle and said she needed help with her 2-year-old daughter. It was reported that London had been hurt while playing at a playground. She was taken to a hospital, where, police said, she was pronounced dead at 7:35 p.m., about half an hour after the officer was flagged down. Homicide detectives responded that same evening and treated the case as a questionable death.
On July 17, the medical examiner ruled the death a homicide by blunt force trauma, and police announced the ruling the next day. "A 2-year-old girl who died from what were thought to be playground injuries actually died from blunt force trauma," WBAL-TV reported. The Associated Press noted that police "haven't arrested anyone or named any suspects." Months later, a year-end review of the city's killings in 2014 said that "City Paper found no record of an arrest in her case."
Her full name was London McKenna Clayborne, and March Funeral Homes in East Baltimore cared for her family, which kept an online tribute wall in her memory. Her death came within weeks of the death of another young child in the city which suggests how much attention the deaths of very young children drew in Baltimore that summer.
Denham Circle is a residential loop of rowhouses and apartments in South Baltimore, with homes close together along the curve of the street. Families who lived along the circle in the spring of 2014 may remember the evening a police officer was flagged down and a little girl was rushed to the hospital.
Baltimore recorded roughly 200 to 280 homicides a year between 2007 and 2014, one of the highest rates of any large American city, and many of those killings were never solved.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of London Clayborne could be found in news archives or public records. More than 12 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who lived on or near Denham Circle in May 2014, or who saw London in the days before she died, may know something about how a 2-year-old came to suffer fatal injuries. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a vehicle seen nearby or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can call Baltimore Police homicide detectives at 410-396-2100, or leave an anonymous tip with Metro Crime Stoppers of Maryland at 1-866-7LOCKUP (1-866-756-2587).
