(Editor’s note: The Era has opted not to include the photo described here.)

There’s a photo circulating on social media of murder victim Oakley Hedlund at a birthday party in the weeks before his death.

Oakley, 2½, was allegedly killed by his father Tyler Prescott, 32, on Aug. 14.

In the photo, believed to have been taken by a member of the Prescott family earlier in August, the little guy is sporting injuries — what appears to be a black eye, scrapes across his nose, cheek and forehead, and redness and scrapes on his chest visible above his tiny Hot Wheels t-shirt.

It was not immediately clear if anyone called police or Children and Youth Services with concerns for Oakley’s well-being after that party or after the picture was posted on social media. Dan Wertz, administrator of McKean County Department of Human Services, said, “I’m not able to address your specific inquiry at this time, but I can explain the process.” (See below)

There was no formal custody agreement between the mother, Tasha Hedlund, and the father, Prescott, according to the affidavit of probable cause filed against Prescott. He’s charged with four felonies — three counts of aggravated assault and one count of endangering the welfare of a child.

According to District Attorney Stephanie Vettenburg-Shaffer at the time of Prescott’s arraignment late Thursday, Hedlund felt the child should know his father. She dropped Oakley off with Prescott, but when she wanted to get him back, Prescott was not cooperative.

He had Oakley from July 17 to Aug. 14, when the child was found unresponsive and blue on a mattress next to Prescott on the floor of a residence where they had been staying for two days.

The public outcry with the case has been fierce. Prescott had been out of prison for about two months after maxing out his prison sentence for charges of recklessly endangering a child and endangering the welfare of a child for a 2021 case. The jury did not convict on three counts of aggravated assault.

The public dockets do not show the aggravated assault charges at all, leading many to think they must have been withdrawn by Shaffer. That is not the case. Prothonotary Vicky Madine confirmed Monday, “Those charges were found not guilty at trial.”

Shaffer agreed. “I can tell you I pulled the record and see that no charges were withdrawn,” contrary to rumors on social media. “As we all know, Facebook is very helpful in many ways, including providing us tips that the officers are following up on. I thank the public for that help. Unfortunately, it can also lead to false information.”

As an example, she said there was not a riot at the McKean County Jail over the weekend. That, too, was an unfounded Facebook rumor.

In the 2021 case, Prescott was convicted of causing near-fatal injuries to an 18-month-old child and preventing her mother from seeking immediate care. Prescott had been sentenced to 20 to 40 months in state prison and served the full 40 months. He was sentenced to two years of concurrent probation, meaning to be served at the same time.

Conditions of his sentence included having mental health and drug and alcohol evaluations and treatment. On June 16, 2025, he completed his sentence and was released from State Correctional Institution at Albion — under no further supervision from the state or from McKean County.

Many members of the public have called this sentence lax, and blamed the jury, or Shaffer, or Judge John Pavlock for what they perceived as a short time of incarceration.

“The judge is required to sentence someone within the range of sentence that the Pennsylvania legislators set,” Shaffer said. “I frequently hear from people that they think sentences are too low, but the judge has to sentence every offender within the range that the legislators permit.

“I am often frustrated by that as well and have spoken about this to some of our legislators,” she said. “I would ask that our state legislators consider these concerns and create stiffer penalties for serious crimes. Last year, however, the state changed the sentencing guidelines and now the sentences are actually less for most crimes than they were before, so the change went in the opposite direction than what most people would have wanted. This is frustrating.

“In fact, our appellate court has stated that a judge is not permitted to include any conditions of parole when he sentences a person to state prison and that only the parole board can,” Shaffer said. “I am currently appealing that opinion in another case, but that is the current case law.”

She also addressed Prescott serving the maximum sentence for the 2021 crime, explaining there is no parole and no parole officer for someone who serves the maximum sentence.

“This is a frustrating fact. Many times, we want people to stay incarcerated until they have served their entire sentence. The result, however, is they go from incarceration and the strict terms that go along with incarceration straight to the community without restrictions or supervision.”

There is a mandatory consecutive probation, but that only applies in longer sentences, Shaffer said.

The Sherman Street couple with whom Prescott and his son were staying had said the two had been there since Tuesday, according to the criminal complaint. They said Oakley “seemed shy” around his father “whenever he would come in the room around the victim,” and would act normal again when Prescott would leave.

The woman said it gave her a bad feeling. She did not make a report, according to the criminal complaint. The male resident said Oakley was fine Tuesday, he didn’t see him much Wednesday but when he left the residence at 8:30 p.m., the boy “appeared fine at that time and was not blue.” When he returned to the residence around 4:30 a.m. on Thursday, he found the child was blue, woke Prescott and started CPR, calling 911, the criminal complaint stated.

Shaffer said at the time of the arraignment that homicide charges are expected to be filed against Prescott after an autopsy.

“This case is the priority of the City of Bradford Police and district attorney’s office,” she said. “All tips are being looked into and I invite anyone with information to provide that to the police.”

Tips have been reported to both offices already, she said. And she will not categorically rule out charging others in the case.

“In any case, only the evidence will determine who is charged with a crime and what crimes they are charged with,” she said. “In short, until the investigation is concluded, I can’t predict what the outcome will be.”

Review held when child dies of suspected abuse

By DANIEL WERTZ

Administrator, McKean County Department of Human Services

When a child dies from suspected abuse, Pennsylvania’s Child Protective Services Law requires a special review to understand what happened and identify ways to better protect children in the future.

Here’s how the process works:

A review team meets
The county Children and Youth Services (CYS) agency convenes a special review team. This team includes CYS staff, the District Attorney, and other professionals.

The team examines the case
The team reviews the circumstances of the child’s death, the services and involvement that occurred beforehand (such as CYS, law enforcement, mental health, drug and alcohol services, schools, and health care providers), court records and whether all laws and regulations were followed.

A report is written
The review team prepares a written report with its findings and recommendations—outlining what could have been done differently and how the system can improve. This report must be submitted to the state within 90 days of the team’s first meeting.

The state reviews and responds

The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services reviews the report and issues a written response within 45 days.

Information is shared with the public

A public version of the report, with private and personal information removed, is then released. This allows the community to understand what happened and what steps will be taken to strengthen the system.