Cameron Davis Hobe Sound 9 month old baby drowns in bathtub in suspicious circumstances as parents slept in other room. History of prior police and child welfare intervention.
Florida authorities are investigating the ‘suspicious death’ of a 9-month-old baby boy who drowned in a bathtub which was filling with water as his parents slept nearby.
Deputies from the Martin County Sheriff’s Office were called to a home in Hobe Sound on Friday after the baby was found face down in the water and blue about 11:30 a.m., authorities said.
Upon arrival, deputies found Shawn Davis, 30, preforming CPR on the child, Cameron, WPTV cited police saying.
First responders took over life-saving techniques, but were unable to save the nine month old boy. The baby was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.
His mother, Heather Clifford, 29, said she had left the infant alone in the tub for about 20 minutes with two other siblings, ages 2 and 3, and that she had fallen asleep, reports WPBF.
Davis also was sleeping at the time the children were left alone in the tub.
Why the mother left the baby along with the siblings unattended remained un-clear.
An autopsy to be performed on Monday is expected to determine Cameron’s official cause of death, and his parents could face criminal charges, authorities said.
‘It’s very suspicious, it’s very preventable and we’ll be consulting with the State Attorney’s Office on the possibility of [a] criminal charge going forward,’ Martin County Sheriff William D. Snyder told WPBF.
‘It’s a tragedy’ neighbor, Lisa McClintock told via cbs12news.
‘They’re pretty quiet and seemed to be, you know, just young struggling parents trying to make their way through. They seemed nice to me,’ McClintock added.
History of discord and prior neglect:
Friday’s tragedy wasn’t the first time cops had responded to the home, with Snyder saying his deputies had been to the home on three other occasions, and that Florida’s Department of Children and Family, or DCF, has also been called.
A next-door neighbor said she and her husband called state child welfare officials a in recent weeks when the siblings were outside, barely dressed, and the parents were apparently asleep inside with the baby crying.
The siblings have been turned over to DCF, which also is investigating.
Previous arrest records in Martin County show that Davis was arrested previously for failure to appear in court, violation of probation on a misdemeanor, battery, reckless driving, failure to register a motor vehicle and having no motorcycle endorsement on his driver’s license.
Clifford also has prior arrests for violation of probation on a misdemeanor charge, giving false information to a pawn broker, dealing in stolen property and battery.
It remained unclear what intervention, if any – DCF had undertaken in previous months…
