A one-year-old boy has died after being found unresponsive in a parked car in a Lexington. 

At around 5:30 pm on Tuesday, Lexington Police responded to a report of an unresponsive infant in the back seat of a car in an East Lexington parking lot. The child was taken to an area hospital, where he was pronounced dead. 

Fire Chief Derek Sencabaugh said that the Lexington Fire Department was present at the scene and told local TV news that “nothing compares to something like this.” Sencabaugh confirmed that the family is from town.

The car was parked behind a building at 363 Massachusetts Avenue, near the Minuteman Bikeway. Boston 25 News reported the infant attended a daycare in the building, Sol-Solecito Learning Center. The founder of the daycare, Nelly Mayorga, said in a statement that the boy didn’t show up as expected on Tuesday morning. The center sent a message to the parents at around 9:00 am, as is their policy in the case of an absence, but didn’t hear back. The Boston 25 News report suggests that the child may have been accidentally left in the car all day. 

Tragically, about 40 deaths a year happen when a child is left in a car, due to heat or other issues, according to Amber Rollins, director of Kids and Car Safety, a nonprofit that promotes safety in cars. She attributes some of this to rear-facing car seats in the backseat, which make it difficult for the parent to see the baby. Forgetting a child in the back seat can happen when parents are tired and stressed and the child is quiet or asleep. 

The incident is currently under investigation by the Middlesex District Attorney’s office. “The preliminary investigation suggests that the child had never entered the daycare on the day of his death and that he may have been in the car for an extended period of time,” District Attorney Marian Ryan and Lexington Police Chief Michael McLean said in a joint statement.

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1 Comment

  1. The above comment is completely inappropriate gossip and should be deleted.
    Let’s wait until the investigation is over before saying anything about the poor woman who just lost her child.

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