Published: March 10, 2007 12:18 am      

Infant dies in Floyd County home

An infant was found dead in a Floyd County home Wednesday afternoon, and despite a coroner’s declaration that the child suffered no injury prior to her death, the possibility of neglect is causing police to leave the investigation open.

Police were called about 3:30 p.m. to a home along the 4300 block of St. Paul Devence Court, where the child was found dead in a car seat.

Floyd County Sheriff Darrell Mills said the child was 5 months old, and as a result of being born premature, had suffered some ongoing health and respiratory problems.

Mills said the child had been seen at Kosair Children’s Hospital in Louisville days before her death. The child had been placed in her car seat to sleep, per doctor’s recommendations, Mills said.

He said police are still looking into the child’s death because the investigation so far revealed that the infant was placed in the seat to sleep at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday and not checked on again until 3:30 p.m. the next afternoon. The child, Mills said, had been dead for a few hours before police were notified.

“We are investigating why the child was left unattended for so long,” he said Friday afternoon.

Mills said there seemed to be some discrepancy between the mother and a home health care nurse as to who was supposed to be attending to the child.

Floyd County Coroner Greg Balmer said autopsy results won’t be available for six to eight weeks, but he did not find any signs of injury to the child.

“Until we know what the baby died from, we can’t really determine (if possible neglect) was a factor,” Balmer said.