An 8-year-old girl is a suspect in the death of a toddler at a Muskegon, Mich., day care, in a case that is shaking law enforcement.
“I thought I saw everything,” Muskegon Police Chief Jeffrey Lewis told MLive. “This one floors me. I can hardly get a grip on it.”
According to the report, Korey Brown, 1, was found dead at the home Friday morning after apparently being left unattended for an extended period.
According to WZZM13, adults were in the home at the time, but the infant appears to have been unsupervised for some unknown amount of time.
“I have all indications that they were in the house; they could have been on another floor, they could have been resting,” Lewis said of the adults. “I do not know what they were doing, but I do know they were not in this area, or this would not have occurred.”
The primary witness is also a child, age 5, making the job for authorities even more complicated, MLive notes.
“The 1-year-old was crying, and it appears no one was attending to the child,” Lewis said. “The 8-year-old dealt with the baby crying.”
Korey’s body, which was found in a bedroom, had no obvious injuries. Lewis could not give the cause of death.
According to the report, the 1-year-old was dropped off at the day care the night before the incident, while the 8-year-old was dropped off around 2 a.m. that day. First responders were called to the scene around 6:50 a.m. with reports of a baby not breathing. A little over an hour later, the baby was pronounced dead despite lifesaving efforts.
“This person that was involved in the death probably felt something was wrong,” Lewis said. “If you’re a child and break something, you try to hide it.”
The 8-year-old was taken for a mental-health evaluation at Mercy Health Partners’ Hackley Campus, Lewis added. Authorities are seeking advice from doctors about where to place the young suspect: with family, a foster care home or another setting.
An investigation is also ongoing to figure out where the adults were in the home at the time of the incident and how long Korey was unsupervised, WZZM13 notes.
According to the news station, the day care operator, Keysha Collins, holds a license for her day care, which was granted on Nov. 18. There have been no complaints against the licensed center; nor has any action been taken against the center as the investigation continues.