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The parents of a toddler killed at day care centre said their son suffocated to death after an employee sat on the beanbag chair he was underneath.

Leo Sanchez, would have turned 2 next week, he sadly passed away after he crawled under a beanbag and one of his day care workers sat on it to read stories to the other kids, said his mother Danielle Sanchez of Utah.

Police are reviewing surveillance video, which Danielle said shows Leo climbing under the bag, for five to 15 minutes, before employees realised he was underneath, reports KFOR.

“How could this happen?” Danielle said. “He’s a big boy. How did they lose track of him? Too many kids, too much noise, overwhelmed, a bad day. Somebody dropped the ball, and now we’re going to have to bury a boy because of that.”


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Sgt. Joe Monson of the West Jordan Police Department called Leo’s death a “very tragic, sad accident.”

“No words adequately describe the depth of the sorrow we feel,” the day care centre said in a statement released through an attorney. “And, of course, we do not pretend to understand how devastating this is for the family. We know the family well, we grieve with them and we pray that God will provide them the comfort and peace they inevitably will need.”

The Department of Health is also investigating circumstances around the toddler’s death and whether the care facility is operating under the proper license, a process which takes 30 days, said department spokesperson Tom Hudachko.

Leo would have turned 2 on September 17, now that is the day his parents plan to hold his funeral.

“I dropped him off at day care not realising I would never be able to hold him again or kiss him or have my Leo back,” Danielle said.

Leo’s father, Dan Sanchez, said something needs to change at the day care and other parents and caregivers should be aware that something like this could happen.

“Be aware,” he said. “Have knowledge and some accountability.”

How?! This kind of thing should never happen. Our thoughts are with the family.

Share your comments below.

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Image via KFOR

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  • This is truely unbelievable. How could they loose track of a child and then realise someone is sitting on him?

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  • I wouldn’t have thought a beanbag would be used in a childcare area for children that young.

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  • What a terrible thing to have happen. Sorry to all the family.

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  • Very tragic. Sadly these odd things happen and its not that the center is bad or the staff really did anything wrong. When you several staff members and several children you are not going to notice over a 15minute period that a child is missing unless its lunch time or morning tea or naptime where all the children would be in one location. When they are all playing in various areas it would be impossible to tell. Its not like a home environment where you only have a few children to keep an eye on.
    Very sad for the family and im sure they staff at the center are very upset as well.

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  • How awfully tragic !! My thoughts and prayers go out to the family !

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  • This is so unbelievably shocking and sad.

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  • what a sad story, R.I.P. little man

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  • Absurd! Under a bean bag? And nobody noticed that the little Leo was missing? :-(
    Poor family. I can’t even imagine how devastated they are! :-(

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  • That’s scary, you expect that your kids would be safe at daycare, tragic accident!

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  • My thoughts and prayers are for the parents at this very sad time.

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  • so upsetting and a reminder to treasure every moment xxx

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  • This is really shocking. There are so many horror stories coming from the US at the moment and ir makes me grateful to live in Australia where we have strick rules on child care ratios and checks and measures in place to (hopefully) prevent this type of incident. My understanding is beanbags are not appropriate for under 3years? Why was this even in a child care centre is incomprehensible. My condolences to the family.

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  • Wow as a child care worker I honestly have no idea how this would have happened. Surly in an environment where young children are attending you would learn to look under things before you sat down, and even then I am sure you would have felt something underneath.
    I feel for the poor worker who sat on the child but I just can;t work out how it would have happened.
    RIP little man. xox

    Reply

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