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Police Believe Long Island Baby Suffocated Under Obese Babysitter
By
Ben Yakas
Published Sep 3, 2011
Modified Sep 3, 2011
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via ABC
By
Ben Yakas
Published Sep 3, 2011
Modified Sep 3, 2011
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This week, the one-month-old child of a Long Island TV news host, as well as the infant's babysitter, were both found dead in an incident police are calling "a tragic accident." Authorities now believe that baby Michael, son of reporter Michael Baldwin II, died after the obese babysitter collapsed on top of him. "The woman was described as extremely heavy. She was extremely large-breasted...Because of the amount of flesh, it could have caused the baby to suffocate," said Detective Lt. Gerard Pelkofsky.
Baldwin, a freelancer at News 12 Long Island, rushed home on Thursday after receiving a distressed message from 39-year-old babysitter Teresa Coffey and not being able to reach her. He found Coffey slumped over in the living room, but his son was nowhere to be found: "I lifted her and he was underneath. He was lying on his back with his hands folded on his stomach. He was blue...I just grabbed him and called his name—I knew he was dead." The baby had only come home on August 18 after spending weeks in the hospital for a medical condition.
Examiners are still conducting autopsies and toxicology tests, but they believe this was an accident; a bottle of prescription pills was found with Coffey, who was 5-foot-6 and over 200 pounds. Baldwin added that she had some medical issues: "[Coffey] had been asking forever if she could watch my baby, because she couldn't have children. She wanted to have kids so bad. I know she had health issues, but I thought she was OK."
Tagged
babysitter
infant
long island
michael baldwin II
news host
obese
teresa coffey
tragedy
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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