REED CITY, Mich. —
Savannah Marie Miller, 31, was supposed to be watching her girlfriend Amber McCall’s daughter, Renzi, while she was at work Saturday night at a restaurant in Reed City.
Jeremiah White, McCall’s father, said it was around two in the morning when he got a frantic call from an unknown caller. It ended up being his daughter on her colleague’s phone after she used hers to call authorities when she found Renzi unresponsive.
“And I answered. She was just screaming, 'Dad, dad, I just got home from work,' and she showed me Renzi laying in her bed on her back, just kind of there,” White said. “And I'm like, all the while she's frantic.”
White said Renzi has lighter skin, so when McCall turned on the lights her body was very visibly bruised head to toe.
While on FaceTime, White said he heard Miller tell McCall that Renzi was okay, and that she was going back to bed. He said Miller sounded like she was on some sort of substance.
“So my daughter picked her up, and she's like, ‘Dad, she's lifeless, like she's barely breathing,’” he said.
Renzi had to be lifted to DeVos Children’s Hospital, where she underwent emergency brain surgery for swelling to her head.
McCall told her father that it was Miller, her girlfriend of four months, who assaulted her child. They moved to Reed City three months ago. Even though McCall’s family is in the Grand Rapids area, she told Miller that if caring for Renzi got too tough, she had people to call.
“She had conversations with her before, like, ‘if this is ever too much, if my daughter's too much for you, let me know,’” White said. “’It's not like, I don't have people, I just have people here.’”
After more brain swelling and seizures, Renzi passed away in the hospital Wednesday afternoon.
White said that he and Renzi were incredibly close and his vibrant, happy granddaughter and him had a special bond. Renzi was supposed to get her ears pierced soon and spend the weekend with her grandparents.
“I was going to be with my grandbaby and my daughter and my wife and my other daughter for the weekend,” White said. “And now that one of those plus ones is missing.”
White said now, they are focusing on supporting his daughter and working on funeral arrangements for Renzi.
“Kids don't get a do over what happens, happens. And you have to pick up the pieces and try to make this puzzle go back together if something goes wrong, and then I have to try to pick up the pieces of your life when something goes wrong,” he said. “And now we're left picking up pieces to a puzzle that we don't know how to put back together.”
The family has a GoFundMe which is being organized by their friend. The funds will go to legal costs and expenses.