Story Created:
May 13, 2008 at 5:00 PM CDT
Story Updated:
May 13, 2008 at 6:35 PM CDT
Lincoln County Sheriff Dennis Johnson says as the investigation moves forward, at this point he has no choice about how to classify the death at a Harrisburg day care on Monday.
Until proven otherwise, virtually all deaths are considered homicides.
But Sheriff Johnson says, "There is nothing at this point that would suggest that it was not a, some kind of medical, or natural related death."
Even though the Harrisburg location was closed Tuesday, parents who bring their kids there are rallying around the center and staff.
"Even after all that's happened and the tragedy that occurred there, Snickelfritz is still a place that I am more than comfortable taking my daughter to. I dropped her of there this morning at their Sioux Falls location," said Heather DeWit.
Others around town say even if they don't know anyone involved, this hurts the entire community.
"Just a tragedy. I just can't imagine what the family is going through right now," said Veronica Bjornson.
An autopsy was completed Tuesday afternoon, but the results won't be released until toxicology tests come back.
That could be another couple days.
The procedure is being conducted in Rapid City because the Minnehaha County Coroner is out of town.
Saturday, May 17 at 2:30 PM JLE wrote ...
I agree with mrgreenjeans. That is the whole point of all of this. They went looking for a "big story" about the daycare somehow being involved in this baby's death and got too ahead of themselves too fast by leading the public to believe there was some sort of wrong doing. If they in fact would have known there was no foul play involved and this was just a natural casue(which nothing has been disclosed about), I doubt they would have reported it.