‘FOR HER TO DIE THIS WAY IS JUST HORRIFIC’
Toddler found dead outside N.H. house in sub-zero temps
NEWPORT, N.H. — The heartbroken grandfather of the toddler found outside her house barefoot in subzero temperatures early Monday said the family is “a mess” over the death of little Sofia Van Schoick.
“She got up around 4 this morning,” Lindsay Van Schoick said of the 2 ½-year-old. “She got out the door and couldn’t get back in. Neighbors heard her but didn’t see anything. … My daughter’s a mess. We’re all a mess. They just moved here this weekend.”
Newport police received a 911 call at 7:10 a.m. reporting that a girl had been found unresponsive outside the house on Maple Street, police Chief James C. Burroughs said. First responders arrived and found Sofia dead, Burroughs said. The temperature at the time was 8 degrees below zero.
Preliminary autopsy results indicate the cause of death was hypothermia due to exposure, Burroughs said.
Neighbors said they heard a child crying at about 4:30 a.m. and nearly 3 hours later found the barefoot toddler lying facedown in the snow at the bottom of the four stairs that lead to the side of the home, wearing only her pajamas, Burroughs said.
“I was making coffee in my kitchen when I heard a woman screaming,” said Charlotte Caron, who lives in the house next door. “I saw a woman on the porch (of Sofia’s home), a man in the driveway and a child face-down on the ground. My assumption was she had fallen down the stairs. I got mad because I was wondering why no one was picking her up. And then a second woman from the same apartment came out, grabbed the child and went back inside with her.”
Van Schoick said he had been to the house on Saturday, and the girl’s grandmother had visited on Sunday. That night, Sofia and her twin brother, Camden, fell asleep in the living room, Burroughs said. Their parents’ bedroom
was at the back of the second floor, he said.
“We suspect she may have gotten up, looking for her grandparents, and then gone outside and gotten disoriented,” Burroughs said. “All indications are this was accidental. … The door was not equipped with a safety mechanism that would have prevented a child from going out.”
A spokesman for the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Servic- es did not immediately return a call seeking comment about whether it was investigating Sofia’s death or had any involvement with the family in the past.
“There are some simple things parents can do to prevent tragedies such as this,” Burroughs said, namely making sure doors have a safety chain or deadbolt.
“Obviously as a parent, these things are deeply troubling,” he said. “When you deal with cases involving children, it affects you as a parent. Our heart pours out to these parents.”
Van Schoick described Sofia as “very precocious, very active, very happy, very independent.”
Her death broke the heart of this close-knit town of just over 6,300 people less than 8 miles from Mount Sunapee Ski Resort.
“She just was so cute,” Caron said. “She had a smile that made you want to smile right back. … For her to die this way is just horrific. It’s devastating.”
“It’s just sad to think of a little girl outside like that,” said Sherry Ayotte, 50, who lives next door. “It makes you feel helpless.”