Babysitter, Infant Die After Being Found Unresponsive Inside Greenlawn Home
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Police are investigating the tragic deaths of a babysitter and an infant on Long Island.
Suffolk County Police received a 911 call Thursday at about 9:35 p.m. about a baby not responding. When they arrived at the home in Greenlawn, they found both the 1-month-old baby, Michael Baldwin III, and his sitter, 39-year-old Teresa Coffey, unresponsive.
Michael Baldwin, the father of the baby boy, said he arrived home to make the unthinkable discovery.
"I saw [the babysitter] slumped over and I began to lift her up and I found my son underneath her and he was dead," Baldwin said.
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Baldwin, a reporter for News 12 on Long Island, said Coffey had left a message on his voicemail around 6 p.m. Thursday, but that he didn't see it until closer to 9 p.m.
"I was leaving work at the time and I called her cell phone about a zillion times and she didn't pick up and I called the house phone and nobody answered," Baldwin said.
The baby's mother was also not home because she was dealing with health issues, CBS 2's Pablo Guzman reported.
Baldwin said that both the front and back doors were locked when he got home. Suffolk Lt. Gerard Pelkofsky said that the medical examiner was conducting autopsies on both the baby and Coffey.
"We don't believe foul play is involved. We're investigating exactly what may have happened to the babysitter that she was located on top of the child. We did a carbon monoxide test and it was determined that was not present in the residence at that time," Pelkofsky said.
Guzman reported that the sitter collapsed and died from a medical problem and that police said she landed on the child, apparently suffocating him.
Baldwin and his wife had always wanted a child. Doctors had told him he could not conceive one and then one day Baldwin said his wife told him: "guess what? I'm pregnant."
"He had a medical issue and had been in the hospital for about 17 days and I just got him home," Baldwin said. "I love my little boy with all my heart."
The baby was given CPR at the scene and transported to Huntington Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Coffey, of Port Jefferson Station, was also transported to Huntington Hospital, where she was pronounced dead a short time later.
Baldwin said that it was first time he used Coffey as a sitter. He said she was an acquaintance of his wife.
"I didn't really know her all that well," Baldwin said. "We had been talking since my baby was born. She talked about how much she wanted to baby-sit him."
"Little Michael was my life and, you know, I spent every waking moment of the day with him. There wasn't a day I wasn't with him and I had so many plans and dreams," Baldwin said.
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