June 6, 2003 – An autopsy is to be performed on a the body of 4-month-old infant who was found lying face down on the floor of a home in Bovoni early Thursday. The child was taken to Roy L. Schneider Hospital, where it was later pronounced dead.
According to police, officers were called to the residence early Thursday morning after the child's father discovered the baby lying motionless and not breathing. Emergency medical technicians who also were called to the scene reportedly found no vital signs.
Sgt. Thomas Hannah, police spokesman, said investigators questioned the parents and the mother told authorities she had placed the infant on a bed Wednesday night and arranged pillows around it as a protective barrier, then had gone to sleep in another area.
On Friday morning, police were still trying to determine whether foul play had anything to do with the child's death. "They're still investigating," Hannah said. "Nothing has been brought forward yet."
Attorney General Iver Stridiron, head of the V.I. Justice Department, which includes the Medical Examiner's Office, said autopsies are performed as a matter of routine in any cases of death that do not occur in a hospital.
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