West Jordan police are investigating what they’re calling the “suspicious” death of a 20-month-old boy.
When officers arrived at the boy’s home at about 5:35 p.m. April 11, the boy was in “full arrest.” He was “obviously not breathing and unconscious,” and his father was performing CPR on him. Paramedics arrived just after the police, and attempted to revive the boy.
According to a search-warrant affidavit, the boy's mother and father told police “they heard what sounded like someone falling down the stairs … but did not hear [the boy] scream or cry.” The parents said they found their son “at the bottom of the stairs unresponsive.”
The affidavit notes that the stairs are “rather steep” but are covered with a carpet pad and carpeting, as is the basement floor at the bottom of the stairs.
The boy was taken to Jordan Valley Hospital and then transferred to Primary Children’s Hospital, where he later died. According to the affidavit, medical professionals told police they “do not believe a fall down the stairs would result in a broken femur” and “head trauma” that the boy suffered, “then leading to no breathing and no heartbeat.”
The investigating officer also wrote in the affidavit that he “has doubts” about the injuries “especially given that child’s weight was only 22 pounds. A lightweight child … falling or tumbling down the stairs should not have suffered these injuries to this extent.”
Follow @ScottDPierce