Police: Toddler lived alone with mother’s body for quite some time
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Courtney Zieller & Joseph Wenzel IV, CNN
CONNECTICUT (WFSB) — An East Hartford mother was found dead in her own home and police believe her three-year-old daughter was living alone in the same apartment for “quite some time.”
The East Hartford Police Department told WFSB Eyewitness News the little girl didn’t show up to daycare and that’s when police were called to the home on Silver Lane on Monday.
When they arrived, investigators found the three-year-old daughter in the home with her mother, who had been dead for “some time.”
“I saw three police cars over here and I never asked because It was upstairs,” Felix Barrera, of East Hartford, said.
Neighbors told Eyewitness News it’s quiet and most people know one another.
“It’s horrible because I knew them and I told her if anything is ever wrong bang on the ceiling three times,” East Hartford resident Susan Tash said.
Tash said she has been in shock since she heard the news about her upstairs neighbor.
“I was working so when I came home the police had come and gone by that time,” Tash said. “And I heard that they found the girl above me deceased for two weeks and the baby was there by herself.”
Police told Eyewitness News when they found the three-year-old girl, she was eating cereal that was left on the floor. It probably kept her alive.
She was taken to Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford. Doctors found her dehydrated, but she’s expected to be OK.
Her 37-year-old mother was found dead. Police don’t know when she died, but said she was inside the home for “sometime”
While police are still investigating, investigators said they don’t believe there was any foul play.
“I was mortified. It hit me hard because the noise upstairs and I felt kind of responsible,” Tash said. “But, there is nothing I can do now.”
Police are waiting on the autopsy report and hope to have more information. As for now, they’re not releasing the woman’s name.
Department of Children and Families are also involved, but they couldn’t talk about the case.