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The Army placed Morings on involuntary leave while his appeal wound through the higher military courts. He'd lost all benefits, and employers were reluctant to hire him, knowing the military could call him back at any moment. Morings worked odd jobs and put himself through college to earn a degree in computer science, Duncan said. This spring, he finally landed a full-time job.

"It's been unbelievably difficult for them," Duncan said. "They weren't free to move on."

Few reversals are granted on appeal in military court, said Duncan, a former Army judge advocate general. Morings was one of the few.

A higher court reversed Morings' conviction in January 2006, saying prosecutors improperly presented evidence that said men are most often prone to shake their babies. Defense attorneys had argued at trial that Chiquita Morings also had access to Chrishon in the time he was shaken.

That left military officials with a choice: They could formally dismiss the assault charge and forget the case or they could pursue a new trial. Had his conviction stood, his obligation to the military would have been done and the Army would not have been able to charge him now with Chrishon's death.

Case shifts to N.C.

Last summer, Fort Bliss military officials rang Ryan, the local detective who had already collected reams of evidence for the Army. Now they asked him to find Chrishon's grave.

It seemed simple enough. For 15 or so days, Ryan lapped the cemetery, staring at the words etched into thousands of headstones. No Chrishon Morings. Maps of the plots had been lost when the cemetery changed hands a few years before, Ryan said.

That's when a tip came. Ryan's still mum on the source. The tipster pointed to a small quadrant of land.

A judge gave investigators permission to dig in a five-square yard patch. There, they struck a child's casket. They dusted off the dirt and drove Chrishon's casket to the medical examiner's office in Chapel Hill.

"I prayed every night I hadn't dug up someone else's child," Ryan said. A DNA match with Claude Morings soon proved it was Chrishon.

No one told Chrishon's family they'd disturbed his grave.

Butts found all the signs of death by shaken baby syndrome complications. After the autopsy, investigators lowered him back into the ground. In March, Morings was called back to Fort Bliss for active duty; he's working on the motor pool fleet while he awaits news.

Duncan fears he'll have to disturb Chrishon all over again. As Duncan prepares to defend Morings at a trial, he'll likely want his own pathologist to study the child.

Duncan hopes someone will direct him to Chrishon's grave; his mother could never find his gravesite again to add a marker.

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