Sleeping mother and dead infant found in parked car in Butte

BUTTE - A 30-year-old Butte mother is being questioned by police after she was found in her parked vehicle with her dead 5-month old daughter Wednesday morning.
Butte police are investigating the death of a 5-month old child who was found in a car that was parked here at the intersection of Alaska and Granite Street. Now police say there are a lot of unanswered questions to this very tragic incident.
The incident began about 8:40 a.m. Wednesday when police officers noticed car parked in an area less than a block from the police station The car's engine was running, and the car doors were locked.
“And attempted to wake the female up and as they did that it appeared she was laying partially on an infant who was also in the vehicle. At that point they decided to break a window out of the passenger side of the vehicle and when they got to the infant, the infant was not breathing and had no pulse,” said Butte Sheriff Ed Lester.
Police also found the mother’s son sleeping in the backseat. Now the 2 or 3 year old child is fine and taken to family services.
“As far as the whole circumstances, as far as why she was there, how she came to be there, and how long she’d been there, at this point, we’re not sure and that’s something we’ll be working on over the next couple of days,” said Lester.
Now the mother is still being questioned by police as of Wednesday afternoon and no charges have been filed yet in this very tragic incident which the sheriff said has been difficult for officers involved.
“You know there’s a little bit of a cloud over the department today because of this incident, everybody’s disappointed and especially those officers who did CPR, they’re a little distraught there were unable to save the child and that’s understandable,” said Lester.