Kierra Harrison Foundation

Andrew Jesse Hunt

8 months

Non Survivor

DAY-CARE OWNER SAYS CHILD'S DEATH BAFFLES HER

The News Tribune (Tacoma, WA)
January 16, 1994, Sunday

Leslie Holdcroft

A Tacoma day-care center owner said Saturday she is mystified by the sudden death of an 8-month-old infant stricken at her home Thursday afternoon.

"I feel real sorry for it, but I haven't done anything wrong," said
Edith Goetz from behind the half-opened door of the Hilltop home where she ran Puffin Daycare. "It was just a fluke thing."

Medical examiners on the weekend were still trying to determine what caused the death of Andrew Jesse Hunt.

The infant was in "extremely critical" condition when he arrived at Mary Bridge Children's Hospital Thursday afternoon, spokesman Todd Kelley said. His condition never improved, and he died at 2:55 p.m. Friday.

Goetz said Andrew had begun breathing rapidly, as if suffering from
asthma. She wanted to call 911, but the boy's mother drove him to Allenmore Hospital, where he was later transferred to Mary Bridge, Goetz said.

An autopsy performed Saturday gave the preliminary cause of death as diminished oxygen to the brain and brain swelling, investigator Bob Bishop said. The official cause could take up to two weeks to determine.

The office will study the infant's tissue and brain to check for
diseases, investigator Paul Jay said. "There could be something in his system that the family didn't know about, although we're not ruling out foul play, either," Jay explained.

Goetz voluntarily closed the licensed center Friday, said Anona Joseph, assistant secretary for the Department of Social and Health Services.

The department is reviewing the record of the licensed, three-year-old center, but has been asked by the prosecutor's office to refrain from discussing whether it has ever committed any violations, said Larry Pederson, area manager of the division of Children and Family Services.

Andrew Hunt was a client of only four days when the situation occurred,
Goetz said.

"We were just starting to get to know him," she said.
His mother, Michelle Hunt, used the service while she went to school,
Goetz said. "I grieve for her, as I would any parent," Goetz said.

Michelle Hunt couldn't be reached Saturday. Goetz' next-door neighbor, who asked not to be identified, said she trusts the center with her own child. At $1.75 an hour, Puffin was affordable. She found the old blue home clean and safe. Goetz, she said, is kind and professional, refusing to take more children than she can hold. "That always impressed me," she said. "I'm hoping they reopen."

Other neighbors in the 2300 block of South Grant Street spoke of
laughing children who played in Goetz' front yard. "As far as I could
see, everything was always fine there," neighbor Raymond Joseph Kissinger
said.

Authorities in Tukwila, meanwhile, were investigating a similar case.

Medics were summoned by a 911 emergency call in Tukwila and took a 4-month-old girl to Children's Hospital in Seattle, where she died Friday night.

Gordon Schultz, a spokesman for the state Department of Social and
Health Services, said the baby had been referred to Child Protective Services before, but he gave no further details. An autopsy was set for Tuesday.