4-month-old baby found dead at Conn. day care

Fire and EMS personnel initiated medical aid and transported the infant to a hospital; the infant was later pronounced dead

October 06, 2016 09:41 AM

The Hour

NORWALK, Conn. — Police are investigating the death of a 4-month-old child who died at a Norwalk day care center Wednesday afternoon.

Sources say the unidentified child died at the home of Mayor Harry Rilling’s daughter, Christine Limone, who runs a day care in the basement of her Hunters Lane home.

Investigators in unmarked state police vehicles were at Limone’s home Wednesday evening, but would not comment on why they were there, and no one answered the door for a reporter. Attempts to reach the mayor have been unsuccessful.

In an official statement sent late Wednesday night, police confirmed an active death investigation of an infant at 9 Hunters Lane, the home of Limone. According to police, officers, firefighters and paramedics were dispatched to the home at 1:31 p.m. on a medical aid call involving an infant at a local day care center.

Dispatch advised responding units that CPR was in progress. Arriving officers and fire personnel initiated medical aid, and the infant was transported to Norwalk Hospital, where the infant was later pronounced dead. No gender, exact age or identification of the infant was provided by police officials.

Limone is actively licensed by the state to run Family Child Care Home at 9 Hunters Lane. The license was first issued in June 2002 and expires in June 2018.

Limone’s day care has had full, unannounced inspections nine times since her license was issued. The last was in March. No enforcement actions were taken after any of the inspections, according to the state’s online data.

The tragic incident on Hunters Lane follows the recent deaths of three infants at home-based child care providers in Fairfield, Stamford and Sterling.

Aside from the day care facility in Fairfield, the day care centers in each of these cases were licensed by the state Department of Public Health, pointing to a potentially larger problem in the challenge of overseeing child care providers across Connecticut.

The Norwalk Police Department’s Special Victims Unit is investigating the incident. Anyone with information about this incident is asked to contact police at any of the following:

Norwalk Police Tip Line at 203-854-3111.

Anonymous Internet tips can be sent to Norwalk police website at norwalkpd.com.

Anonymous text tips can be submitted by typing “NPD” into the text field, followed by the message, and sending it to CRIMES (274637).