The case remains one of Lake County’s longest pending murder cases with the trial kicking off with jury selection Monday nearly 5 years after Hodge was first charged.
Over the years, Hodge has seen a revolving door of attorneys who each petitioned for time to get up to speed on the case.
Autopsy findings showed the girl suffered a possible dislocation of vertebrae in her neck and died of asphyxia due to suffocation, which was complicated by blunt force trauma to the head, according to court documents. In an interview with police, Hodge said she took two of her foster children to school that morning, returned home to take a third child to school and came back home when she noticed Emma’s face was facing the wall in the same position as when Hodge left, according to the probable cause affidavit.
Hodge’s boyfriend returned to the Miller home about midnight May 3 and heard Emma yelling or crying in the crib while the other children in the bedroom were trying to sleep, records state.