Death of infant found on Cary apartment floor is focus of police investigation

The death of a 5-month-old boy who was found on a bedroom floor in the apartment where he lived is under investigation as a possible crime, according to a search warrant that police obtained.

According to information that Detective Adam Dismukes gave a magistrate last month when asking for permission to search the Cheswick Place apartment, the mother said she had put him to sleep in a car seat on the floor next to her bed before she took a nap.

When she woke up, the boy was on the floor by the foot of the bed, face-up under a plastic bag with clothes in it, and she could see only his feet, Dismukes said in his application.

Dismukes said police are looking at possible charges of involuntary manslaughter and possession of drug paraphernalia, but no charges had been filed as of Wednesday. The boy’s body was sent to the State Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy.

The search warrant was returned to the Wake County court clerk’s office Tuesday.

A 2-year-old sibling had been sleeping on the bed and was unharmed, police said.

The mother had been partying the night before the child was found on Sept. 18, a Tuesday, and had been drinking and had used cocaine, police learned when questioning her.

Wake County EMS medics decided to take the baby to WakeMed Hospital. A police officer followed their ambulance and overheard the woman at the hospital while she was talking on the phone about what had happened , according to Dismukes.

The mother left about 10 p.m. and returned home about 5:30 a.m., she told police. A boyfriend stayed with the children between those times.

She told officers she had moved the baby to the car seat and put it alongside the bed before she went to sleep, Dismukes said.

This story was originally published October 17, 2018 at 11:46 AM.