Christ, you cannot be serious. I got whacked for misbehavior. How in the hell can you equate your father hitting you like that with this woman repeatedly punching a four year old little girl? How?!
After being whacked with the belt he couldn't sit down. So, he had to stand up in the back of the pickup on the way home. Dad had other things on his mind, so he didn't notice his kid had fallen out of the back of the truck 'till later.
By the time they found him it was too late. He had split his head open on the pavement. Docs were able to save him, even though they didn't have all the pieces. That's why they call him goldenboy.
Before they got to him, crows had scavenged the brains that spilled out. How else can you explain him showing up and positing the 4 y/o girl might have stole something and thus deserved the beating. Epecially since the mother is know to be a member of a group of professional petty thieves.