A child hanging in his bed. natural death, accident, filicide or neglect?

Children, particularly in their first years, are exposed to a variety of potentially dangerous situations, also in their natural environment, at home. The finding of a death child in his bed during unattended afternoon sleep, could be a critical situation in death’s investigation. Each hypothesis – natural or accidental death, neglect or filicide – has to be evaluated from the beginning. Filicide - the murder of one’s own child - is a vast crime, but not only the fairly home arrangements of a young couple of parents, can lead to exclude such a hypothesis. We present a case where a 17 month old boy was found hanging, with the head entrapped between the mattress and the wooden crib rails. To help the forensic evaluation of this suspect accidental asphyxial death, the reconstruction of the position of the body in the bed and a careful examination of the structure - wooden protection crib rails - of the bed itself.