Baby Leo Sanchez was supposed to turn 2 years old in a few days. The Utah toddler was suffocated at daycare after an adult sat on a bean bag chair that he was apparently trapped under. "I'm supposed to be planning his birthday party for next week and now I'm planning his funeral," his mother, Danielle Sanchez, said in tears. Read more at KSL. NEWSLETTERS Receive the latest as-seen-on updates in your inboxOn Saturday, what would have been Leonardo Sanchez’s second birthday, his family will not have the party they had planned. Instead, they will hold a funeral. In a tragedy that unfolded in a matter of minutes at a day-care center in West Jordan, a suburb to the southwest of Salt Lake City, Danielle Sanchez lost her son. “He was a cute bundle of joy,” Sanchez said to Salt Lake City’s Fox 13. “He brought a lot of love.” /RWdWY3wL8T — FOX 13 News Utah (@fox13) September 10, 2016 Sanchez left Leonardo at West Jordan Child Center on Sept. 8. It would mark the last moment she saw her son alive.
Around noon, the toddler was playing with other children at the center — not unusual for a boy who, according to his mother, was always the life of the party. He crept beneath a bean bag chair at the day-care center to hide, according to West Jordan police who later reviewed security camera footage from that day. An employee of the center, seemingly unaware of Leonardo’s whereabouts, then sat on top of the chair. Why the employee did not notice Leonardo, or the child’s apparent absence from the room, is unclear. [Toddler who died a ‘painful, horrible death’ may have been placed in a freezer, officials say] “I’m just confused,” Sanchez said to NBC affiliate KSL. “I’m so confused on how you don’t know where my kid is. How do you not feel him? How do you not hear him scream?” She said that police told her that, for several minutes, the employee sat on the chair and read to other children. Sgt. Joe Monson, with the West Jordan police, called the incident a tragic accident.
Police say Leonardo was under the chair for up to 15 minutes before the day-care center noticed he was missing. He suffocated beneath the chair and was discovered unconscious. Responders attempted to resuscitate the toddler at the day care, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. He was pronounced dead at Salt Lake City’s Primary Children’s Hospital later that night. [After deaths of three toddlers, Ikea recalls millions of dressers] On Friday, Dan Sanchez, the boy’s father, told KUTV that the day-care needed to change its practices and be held accountable. “We regret deeply the tragic death of a young toddler at our day care facility. No words adequately describe the depth of the sorrow we feel. And, of course, we do not pretend to understand how devastating this is for the family,” West Jordan Child Center said in a statement Friday through its attorney Barry Johnson. As Johnson told KSL: “We know the family well, we grieve with them, and we pray that God will provide them the comfort and peace they inevitably will need.”
[‘We are devastated,’ family says of toddler killed in alligator attack at Disney resort] The day-care center had two violations in the previous five years, according to a spokesman for the Utah Department of Health’s child-care licensing program; in one instance, children were left unsupervised. As of Friday, no charges had been filed against the unnamed employee. Tom Hudachko, with the Utah health department, told The Washington Post early Tuesday that a health inspector was still collecting information for her report. This post has been updated.Leonardo Sanchez's parents had been planning for their little boy's second birthday, which would have been on September 17. Now, after a horrifying accident at a daycare center, they're planning his funeral on that day instead. The toddler suffocated to death under a beanbag chair after a daycare worker sat on it to read to the children there, KSL-TV reports.Police say an adult at the daycare facility sat on a large beanbag chair, unaware that "baby Leo" was underneath it.
Leonardo was trapped, and suffocated to death. I'm so confused on how you don't know where my kid is," mother Danielle Sanchez told the TV station. "How do you not feel him? How do you not hear him scream?" He was under the beanbag chair for as long as 5 to 15 minutes, according to KUTV, and police are reviewing surveillance video that shows him climbing under the chair.Leo Sanchez would've turned two on September 17, the day his family is now planning to hold his funeral. #/8SQwIgtYCw— Amy Nay (@AmyNay2News) September 9, 2016According to Fox 13 Salt Lake City, the West Jordan Child Center has been in violation of the Utah Office of Children's Licensing twice over the past five years. Once they had a lack of supervision in their patio area, and once they had a hole in their fence big enough for a child to escape. Now the department is investigating Leonardo's death, and that will take about 30 days."We regret deeply the tragic death of a young toddler at our daycare facility. No words adequately describe the depth of the sorrow we feel," the daycare center said in a statement.
"And, of course, we do not pretend to understand how devastating this is for the family. We know the family well, we grieve with them, and we pray that God will provide them the comfort and peace they inevitably will need."His mother said Leo would lift everyone's spirits and can't imagine how he slipped under beanbag & died at daycare. /MXkzxly1iX— Amy Nay (@AmyNay2News) September 9, 2016Before this, Leo had been attending the daycare facility for about a year, and once fell and had to have stitches in his lip; that wasn't viewed as anything suspicious, but simply was an accident. Leonardo's loved ones have set up a GoFundMe account to help the family with funeral expenses.Leonardo will be remembered as "a cute bundle of joy" who was fun-loving, happy, and adventurous. His heart was donated to another child in need, and his family is seeking birthday gifts that will be donated to a children's hospital. "You just don't know when the last time will be when you see your baby. I dropped him off at day care not knowing I'll ever hear his laugh again, hold him again," his mother told KSL-TV.