10-Year-Old Sitter Accused of Strangling Year-Old Baby Girl

A 10-year-old girl was being held Thursday in the strangulation death of a year-old infant she was baby-sitting in their Atwater District home.

The girl, whose name was not released because of her juvenile status, allegedly strangled the baby girl late in the evening of Aug. 5 or in the early hours of Aug. 6, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Reid Rose.

The baby sitter’s father and the baby’s mother had left the apartment they shared, returning shortly after 2 a.m. Aug. 6 to find the baby not breathing.

Paramedics rushed the infant to Childrens Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. There were no visible signs of trauma, and doctors initially attributed the death to sudden infant death syndrome, Northeast Division Detective Dave Garrison said. However, an autopsy several days later showed that the infant had been strangled.

Detectives interviewed the family again, and the girl said she was jealous of the baby and killed her, Garrison said. The girl is being held by juvenile authorities pending arraignment Sept. 8.