A 3-year-old girl was found wandering alone through a Connecticut neighborhood Friday morning — and the search for her family led police to a heartbreaking discovery inside a nearby home.
Waterbury police said officers were called to the area of Poplar Street just before 11 a.m. on Sept. 25 after someone reported seeing a small child walking around without an adult.
Officers quickly located the little girl.
Police said she appeared to be physically unharmed and showed no signs of abuse or neglect.
But what happened next turned the case into a tragedy.
Investigators followed up at a home on nearby Alder Street in an effort to find the child’s mother.
Inside, they discovered a 34-year-old woman unresponsive.
Emergency medical personnel pronounced her dead at the scene.
Sgt. Joseph Morais said the woman appeared to have been dead “for a period of time,” though police have not publicly said exactly how long.
Her identity has not been released.
Perhaps most unsettling is that investigators still do not know exactly what happened.
Police said there were no obvious signs of foul play at the home, but the woman’s death remains under active investigation.
Authorities have not announced a cause or manner of death.
It is also unclear how long the 3-year-old had been outside alone before someone noticed her wandering the neighborhood and called police.
For now, officials have released few additional details about the child or what may have happened inside the home before she ended up outside by herself.
Anyone with information that could help investigators is being asked to contact the Waterbury Police Department Detective Bureau at 203-574-6941. Anonymous tips can also be submitted to Crime Stoppers at 203-755-1234.
The investigation remains ongoing.
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