12/29/2007
State's child review board to examine infant's death
By Journal Inquirer Staff
EAST WINDSOR - The state's child advocate has opened an investigation into the death of a 3-month-old infant girl found by a 10-year-old in an apartment in the Broad Brook section of town. Child Advocate Jeanne M. Millstein, who serves as chairwoman of the state's Child Family Review Board, said Friday, "We have already opened a review of this terrible tragedy."
The state's chief medical examiner says the results of the autopsy conducted Wednesday are pending further study, which is expected to take seven to 12 weeks. An initial autopsy was inconclusive.
At 8:15 a.m. Wednesday, police responded to a 911 call to an apartment at 59 Mill Pond Road in the Mill Pond Village apartments, where paramedics found a baby on the living room sofa. Paramedics transported the infant, who was not breathing, to Connecticut Children's Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead, police said.
Police say sudden infant death syndrome is being considered as a possible cause of the baby's death. Officers have taken a statement from the baby's father, 21-year-old Matt Orefice, but police say they're still collecting evidence and conducting interviews to determine what happened to the baby. Orefice was not in the apartment when police arrived, police said, but a 10-year-old girl and an 8-year-old boy, along with the paternal grandmother and the grandmother's boyfriend, were present.
Police Chief Edward J. DeMarco Jr. said that Orefice and the infant's mother, who lives in Manchester, live separately.
Anyone with further information is asked to contact the East Windsor Police Department's Detective Division at 292-8240.
This story includes Associated Press reporting.
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