Flandreau Authorities Investigate Baby's Death

A 14-month-old boy is dead and investigators in Flandreau are trying to figure out why.

On Friday morning, investigators swarmed the Foxcroft Apartments. But Moody County Sheriff Troy Wellman remains tight lipped about the investigation.

"The child was in the custody of his parents," Wellman said. "There is no danger to the community of any kind."

"He's such a sweet baby. I've seen her baby a couple times. He's just the sweetest," neighbor Yashira Gonzalez said.

At six a.m. Friday morning, Gonzalez says she heard loud shouting coming from the parent's apartment.

"I was making a bottle for my son and you could hear cussing and stuff like that. I kind of ignored it because I try not to get into other people's business, but it was pretty loud," Gonzalez said.

And while that type of behavior is not uncommon, Gonzalez was shocked by what her six-month-old son noticed a few hours later.

"When my son was pointing out the window, I looked. It was a little itty bitty body on a gurney. It broke my heart. I started crying. It hurt me because my son is so little. He's not too much younger than that other baby." Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez saw the baby's parents led into police cars.

And while the Sheriff won't say if the death is suspicious, the Department of Criminal Investigation and Flandreau Police are helping piece together what happened.

"It's common practice if we have a death that could be some kind of medical issue or some other kind of issue, we'll have an investigation fully done on it," Wellman said.

Sheriff Wellman says an autopsy is being performed to find the exact cause of death.