March 17, 2003 – Police are investigating the death of an infant last Tuesday on St. Thomas that has been classified as a homicide based on the results of an autopsy.
Dr. Francisco Landron, the territory's medical examiner, said the autopsy showed that the 17-month-old child, whose identity has not been released, died as a result of blunt force trauma.
According to Deputy Police Chief Theodore Carty, the case was brought to the attention of the Major Crimes Unit by hospital workers.
At about 7:13 a.m. Tuesday, Carty said in a release distributed on Monday, "Central Dispatch notified the Major Crime Unit about an infant who was transported to the Roy L. Schneider Hospital after the infant developed problems breathing." The child died in the hospital emergency room while being examined, he said.
The infant's death is the eighth reported homicide on St. Thomas this year and the ninth in the territory.
Carty said investigators will be seeking to determine the identities of caregivers who had regular contact with the child and whether other children were being cared for along with the infant, either as a clients or as part of a family unit. "Everybody's going to be questioned," he said.
Police may seek assistance from the Human Services Department if the information gathered warrants it, Carty said.
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