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DENVER -- The 1-year-old son of a Denver police officer died from strangulation on a toy, the Denver coroner's office said Monday.
Jeremiah James Saunders was being watched at an in-home day care when he died last month.
The 17-month-old infant was not breathing when crews arrived at the home in northeast Denver on Nov. 4. He was pronounced dead at Children’s Hospital in Aurora about 30 minutes after the initial call to the home.
His death came from a wooden and wire toy found in the family room of the day care, located at 4332 Ceylon St., the coroner's office said.
Doctors noted he had ligature marks on his neck and upper chest.
The coroner's office has ruled his death an accident.
Police have completed their investigation and have forwarded the case to the district attorney's office, Denver police spokesman John White said. The district attorney's office will review the case and determine if any charges will be filed, said Lynn Kimbrough, a spokeswoman for the Denver district attorney’s office.
Day care provider Dammi Seneviratne told detectives the boy was eating in a high chair, when she left the room and returned to find him "slumped over in this high chair and unresponsive," according to the search warrant affidavit.
A doctor at Children's Hospital said the child was "left alone and unattended for more than one minute,” according to court documents.
The day care operator told 7NEWS Jeremiah had been sick all week. Jeremiah had a cast on his right arm, and signs of an upper respiratory infection, but he had no signs of the flu or RSV, the coroner's office said.
Jeremiah had been at that day care for about a year.
Seneviratne told the Denver Post she was taking care of five children at the time Jeremiah stopped breathing.
During the police investigation, officers seized “clothing, food (eaten and partially eaten), rope, string or any other item which could be used as a ligature, high chair,” according to the search warrant. Investigators eventually took from the home a playpen, a high chair, a wire toy, a child’s hooded jacket, and a diaper bag.
It's not clear what kind of wire and wooden toy caused the boy's death.
The day care was licensed in April 29, 2002.