It is a sad end when the body of a 16 month toddler found dead under a couch at her own home, after going missing for two days.
In a Joliet Township home of Chicago, Illinois, a mother reported her 16 month old daughter missing around 6:30 pm after not seeing her. The Department of Children and Family Services visited the home just hours before the toddler was reported missing, but found no immediate threat to the child’s safety, DCFS went around 3:20 p.m. and seen Semaj and two siblings with “no obvious hazards or safety concerns at the time,” DCFS spokeswoman Alissandra Calderon reported.
After carefully searching the house the body of the toddler found was that of 16 month old Semaj Crosby, lying under the couch of the house where she lived.
DCFS had visited the family 16 times in the last year, according to the sheriff’s office.
The home was in a “very deplorable” condition and often inhabited by squatters, Rick Ackerson, deputy chief of the sheriff’s office, said at a news conference Thursday.
“Upon the conclusion of their examination, they have deemed the house uninhabitable and have red-tagged it,” the statement from the sheriff’s office said.
Will County Sheriff’s Deputy Chief Richard Ackerson said police consider Semaj Crosby’s death “suspicious.”
The Will County coroner completed the autopsy on Thursday and said the cause of Semaj Crosby’s death is pending further studies. The final cause and manner will be determined by toxicology and police investigation reports.
No one in particular is deem a suspect but investigations are being carried out along with the toxicology.
An attorney representing the child’s mother, Sheri Gordon, said her client was “extremely distraught” over the death of her little girl.
“She prays for her daughter and appreciates the community’s support,” the attorney, Neil Patel, said in a written statement on Facebook. “We look forward to when we can put this tragic incident behind us and allow the healing to begin.”