Father says 5-year-old girl ‘was just a kid to be loved’

The father of the 5-year-old girl whose death has been ruled a homicide said he loved his daughter and was a part of her life.

But Anthony Woods held back from saying more, telling Channel 2 Action News he wants to allow the GBI time to continue its investigation into the death of Heaven Woods, of Rome.

Heaven died Tuesday after Monroe County 911 received two calls at 8:51 a.m. for an unresponsive child. An autopsy conducted at the GBI Crime Lab determined the girl died from blunt force trauma to the abdomen, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported. The autopsy also showed that Heaven had injuries in different stages of healing, the GBI said.

Police arrested Heaven’s mother, Amanda Hendrickson, and the man she and the girl were living with, Roderick Buckner. Hendrickson, 33, has been arrested on charges of felony child cruelty in the first degree and giving false statements. Buckner, 34, also faces felony first-degree child cruelty charges. Both could face additional charges, the GBI said.

Although Heaven’s death is being investigated as a homicide, no murder charges had been filed late Friday afternoon.

Heaven’s father told Channel 2 he’s struggling to believe that his daughter is gone.

“She was just…she was just a kid to be loved,” Anthony Woods said. “It’s just hard to explain, it really is.”