Father Finds Babysitter Dead, Infant Crushed to Death
- Posted on September 3, 2011 at 4:54pm by
Madeleine Morgenstern
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A New York television reporter returned home to a horrible scene Thursday night when he found his 5-week-old infant son and babysitter both dead.
Authorities said 39-year-old Teresa Coffey likely suffered a fatal medical condition while she was holding the baby and collapsed on top of him.
Michael Baldwin, a reporter for News 12 Long Island, said he saw Coffey through the window slumped over on the couch when he arrived, but never imagined she was dead. It wasn’t until he tried to move her that he saw the baby underneath.
“I went over to her,” he told WABC-TV. “I began to move her, and then I saw him. He was under her. He was just crushed. His face was kind of blue. I knew he was gone.”
The infant had recently been taken home after spending the first few weeks of his life in the hospital.
“I picked him up, I was like Michael, Michael, Michael, he said nothing he didn’t say anything, there was no breathing, there was no cry there was nothing,” Baldwin said.
The baby was given CPR at the scene but could not be revived and was pronounced dead at the hospital. Coffey was also transported to the hospital where she was pronounced dead.
Baldwin’s Twitter feed is filled with recent posts exuberant about birth of his son. The last one, dated August 18, reads, “After 17 days my son goes home from the hospital. Can’t wait!”
An autopsy will be performed to determine the exact cause of Coffey’s death.
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Comments (74)
CW3147
Posted on September 3, 2011 at 9:36pmI have a brother that when he got hurt when he was little, he would pass out for a few seconds. It was such a scary thing of those few seconds. I couldn‘t imagine if he didn’t get out of it. My belief is that every thing tragic that happens in our life is for a reason. I’ll pray for this family.
Report Post »sissykatz
Posted on September 4, 2011 at 9:44amThis is so tragic….My goodness, I pray for the family’s of the child and the babysitter. What a
horrible thing to have happen. God must surely wanted that Child. We do not understand things
like this, they just seem to horrible to be true.
Don’t you know how guilty the father feels. Lord be with him in his time of need.
Report Post »jb.kibs
Posted on September 4, 2011 at 12:10pmoh… my…
Report Post »what in the f….
Bluefish49
Posted on September 4, 2011 at 5:38pmI’m sorry for his lose…really….but who leaves a 5 week old baby with a sitter? Am I off base here?
Report Post »bgoggan
Posted on September 3, 2011 at 9:19pmmy thoughts and prayers are with this family…for whatever it’s worth.
Report Post »mtnhimike
Posted on September 3, 2011 at 9:02pmThis just breaks my heart and I live in Oregon and do not even know this family. Our Prayers are for them in this time of grief. God be with you !!
Report Post »lodibug
Posted on September 3, 2011 at 8:32pmPrayers lifted up for the family as they grieve the loss of their loved ones.
Report Post »KangarooJack
Posted on September 3, 2011 at 8:31pmThis is horrible. I feel so sorry for all. Just very sad.
Report Post »FantaGirl
Posted on September 3, 2011 at 8:28pmI’m crying…God bless their families, and may the souls of the two aforesaid be well.
Report Post »pegw
Posted on September 3, 2011 at 8:22pmThis is so bad, I am so sorry for the father. Where is the Mom? We must pray for the baby, the baby sitter & the Dad who is reallly suffering now.
Report Post »Suzee
Posted on September 3, 2011 at 9:29pmyes, prayers for this father …….I wondered the same about the Mom……he made an odd statement, “I didn’t know her (the baby sitter) very much, I just had to get to work and she was my last option, I just had to get to work……I pray for his aching heart.
Report Post »ENCTARHEEL
Posted on September 4, 2011 at 3:27pmThe mother is a niece of my wife’s best friend. She was at our house yesterday to read the story. According to her the mother is in re-hab.
Report Post »ENCTARHEEL
Posted on September 4, 2011 at 4:01pmLet me add a bit more to this tragedy. The maternal grandparents live near here in Pamlico County. NC. Their house was flooded during Irene.
Report Post »raspberrytea
Posted on September 3, 2011 at 7:50pmso sad.
Report Post »Jenny Lind
Posted on September 3, 2011 at 7:25pmThis without one of the worst events i’ve hesrd in some time. Double the sadness for both families. Sometimes it‘s hard to understand the why’s, but I know they both are safe. My prayers for God to comfort the families heart’s and that they will find the “peace that surpases all understanding” God bless them all.
Report Post »LadyIzShy
Posted on September 3, 2011 at 7:00pmprayers for the families..
Report Post »Free2speakRN
Posted on September 4, 2011 at 2:09amYes. Let us pray.
Report Post »zoro51
Posted on September 3, 2011 at 6:48pmit was a accident rejoice n be comforted hes in heaven now in gods arms.. HUGS XO
Report Post »dontbotherme
Posted on September 3, 2011 at 6:40pmWhat a heartbreaking thing to happen. God bless this family.
Report Post »jb.kibs
Posted on September 4, 2011 at 12:18pmthis is heartbreaking… a precious little baby… how can this lady be a babysitter with this condition? did she not know that she could collapse at any second?!
Report Post »wrs840
Posted on September 3, 2011 at 6:32pmYes this is tragic, but here’s a news flash to the bleeding hearts:
Raise your own kids. No 5-week old should be with a “babysitter”, much less after an “infant had recently been taken home after spending the first few weeks of his life in the hospital”. I don’t care about your “career”. Once you have kids, they need two parents, and one of them without a “career” for about 18 YEARS. Wake up people.
Report Post »dragontheground69
Posted on September 3, 2011 at 6:46pmthankyou for posting that, very true
Report Post »circleDwagons
Posted on September 3, 2011 at 7:02pmthis is very sad, a young lady and a baby died. u’re remark is awful.. in this zero economy if one has a job he has to work.
Report Post »wrs840
Posted on September 3, 2011 at 7:45pmI was raised poor and so was my wife. Our kids are homeschooled. People with two cars in the driveway, a house in the ‘burbs, a flatscreen TV with cable premium channels and a computer to post on The Blaze with should think a spell before lecturing me on what 5-week-old babies and their parents “need”.
Report Post »netmail
Posted on September 4, 2011 at 3:19pmWe don’t know the situation of this poor man but sadly, two biological parents are NOT raising their children in the same household as the norm anymore. Neglect appears to be rampant in one form or another today and society is paying for it dearly. (not just in $$$ either)
Report Post »Bluefish49
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 9:46amMy thoughts exactly…I don’t care if the mother was in prison….you don’t leave a 5 week old…especially with someone you don’t know….this guy would have lost his job anyway…but at least the child would be alive and even maybe put up for adoption to a responsible family.
Report Post »I.Gaspar
Posted on September 3, 2011 at 6:16pmIt doesn’t matter if there is more to the story or not.
Report Post »This was a terrible tragedy and my heart goes out to the baby’s parents.
Bernard
Posted on September 3, 2011 at 6:15pmAll I can say to this horrendous tragedy is that this infant was not “crushed” to death as the article implies, but was suffocated and died instantly. If one believes in heaven, this little soul is there. I cannot imagine the pain Micheal Baldwin must be going through.
Report Post »Atomic
Posted on September 3, 2011 at 6:10pmVery, very sad story… A true tragedy. My prayers to the family.
Report Post »axel@25
Posted on September 3, 2011 at 5:59pmI don’t care about…. the size of the sitter, the marital status of the dad/mom, financial status, home repair, neighbourhood, etc…etc…
Report Post »the child died..and humanity will mourn it…the in-human will try to make pet “points” from it.
bikerr
Posted on September 3, 2011 at 8:09pm@ axel@25 —My only reason for questioning about marital status was to correctly send condolences. It just seems more sincere if you know. As for getting“ points”. I’m sure you to are sorry for the loss. Let’s stay focused on the tragedy and worry or post about “points”later if that is important to you.
Report Post »chucklesworth
Posted on September 3, 2011 at 5:55pmWell this is sad indeed, but in no case should someone have a babysitter for a 5 week old especially sense it just came home from the hospital. I do understand that he has to work but a parent should’ve been with the child and not a babysitter. I just wish the news would be more thorough in there stories.
Report Post »hauschild
Posted on September 3, 2011 at 5:47pmObviously tragic, but like nearly ever other “tragic” story, I’m gonna wait until the investigations are over before I feel any sympathy. I’ve been duped one too many times over the years.
Report Post »SFfam
Posted on September 3, 2011 at 5:42pmI hate to say I don’t believe his story, but I don’t believe his story! I’m so sorry for the lives lost though.
Report Post »blue_sky
Posted on September 3, 2011 at 6:30pmWhy? I usually do not fully trust politicians, media and lawyers. Here too, there is something fishy about the Baldwin if what is printed is the direct quote of his speech. Well an autopsy nowadays is performed objectively as long as this case is does not have high media coverage, then it also becomes political ….
Report Post »fdmike
Posted on September 3, 2011 at 6:36pmwhat is not to believe about this story? there is nothing in this story that is farfetched…it is so plausible that i have to say that sometimes pessimism has no place, and this is one of those times.
Report Post »fdmike
Posted on September 3, 2011 at 6:38pmnot for nothing, try telling that to the father who just lost his 5 week old baby, most of that time spent in the hospital. leave the conspiracy theories for something more worthwhile
Report Post »Secessionista
Posted on September 3, 2011 at 5:29pmAnother side-effect of obesity. The baby sitter was surely a fatty and had a heart attack or stroke.
I feel for this man. And I can’t believe reporters for the local news live in such crappy houses!
Remember when news reporters and airline pilots were upper-middle-class?
Hope and change, I guess.
Report Post »Marci
Posted on September 3, 2011 at 5:41pmWhy would you even say that Secession? This is a tragedy, there was no room for your comments in this.
Report Post »bry
Posted on September 3, 2011 at 6:15pmThat “crappy” house would list for about $400,000. This is Long Island, and the taxes for the house are probably around 9 to 10 thousand a year.
Report Post »Secessionista
Posted on September 3, 2011 at 6:31pm@Marcy: Because he didn’t even see his son until he moved her body. A normal sized person can’t entirely cover an infant. That’s why. Plus, he was defensive about the whole thing in the first place. He feels guilty, and he hired this woman but never really felt comfortable about the whole thing in the first place.
@Bri: Wow, you verizon workers sure had it going on. You still out of work?
Report Post »biohazard23
Posted on September 3, 2011 at 6:53pmThe New York Post has more.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/sitter_dies_and_lands_on_li_infant_H07ekglp8ZEoReC0jxN0sM
Report Post »CrazyTexan
Posted on September 4, 2011 at 1:21amSeccionista,
Report Post »I am 5′4 and 120 lbs, all 5 of my children were at least 7.5 # and my body could have easily covered them completely especially across my shoulders; the baby was obviously either a premie or ill and thus the hospital stay, and would be smaller than your normal child perhaps 4-6.5 # .
Middle Finger
Posted on September 4, 2011 at 1:54amI have to agree with MARCI. Two lives were lost. Nevermind their social status.
Report Post »jb.kibs
Posted on September 4, 2011 at 12:17pmyou are crazy…. i look at excessive fat as nasty too, but think about this. the baby weighs, what? 10 lbs … and a 100 lb person lands on their face, they can’t breathe… what do they do? LIFT them off? i don’t Fing think so… they die. it doesn’t matter HOW big they are… the fact is that babies have suffocated from BLANKETS and PILLOWS in their cribs because they were too weak to lift them off their faces…
Report Post »bobbyjoe
Posted on September 3, 2011 at 5:19pmI can’t imagine. So sorry for their loss. In Gods loving hands now.
Report Post »Grasshopper42
Posted on September 3, 2011 at 5:12pmI could have done without reading this tragic story. So sad . . . .
Report Post »bikerr
Posted on September 3, 2011 at 5:06pmVery,very,sad. Was there another parent or was He single?
Report Post »Better Dead Than Red
Posted on September 3, 2011 at 5:14pmThis is so sad. I was wondering the same thing. Why is there a sitter for a 5 WEEK old?!
Report Post »ottodiedacktick
Posted on September 3, 2011 at 5:27pm@BIKERR The parents are a married couple, I think the wife is inconsolable.
Report Post »rockstone
Posted on September 3, 2011 at 5:28pmIt’s a different world…….
Report Post »Secessionista
Posted on September 3, 2011 at 5:32pmYes, this is a very odd story, where is the mother? He can’t really be divorced, the mother of this child just had this baby. Did he adopt this child at birth? He seems like a good man to me, but there is more to this story, and the news needs to tie up the loose ends.
Report Post »loriann12
Posted on September 3, 2011 at 5:01pmHow tragic. I’m without words…they have my prayers.
Report Post »Want our country back
Posted on September 3, 2011 at 5:53pmI feel like you and am surprised by some of the comments on this post. My heart is broken for this family and all concerned. Prayers to you all, including those posting such awful comments.
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