A North Carolina mother has been charged with involuntary manslaughter after her baby who was sleeping next to her died.
Mackenzie Katlyn Reed, 24, was charged on 6 March, after officers were called out to her home in Wilmington on 3 October 2023.
Police: Infant Died of Suffocation
Just after 2.30am that day, officers arrived at the home on the 800 block of Castle Street, where they found an infant who wasn't breathing.
"First responders were not able to revive the infant and the infant passed away," the Wilmington Police Department said in a post on Facebook. "During the investigation, it was discovered that the infant's mother, Mackenzie Reed, was co-sleeping with the infant and during the night she suffocated her child."
Reed's Other Child Died Similarly, While Co-Sleeping with Her in 2022
However, this was not the first such incident involving Reed. In 2022, the department said, she had another child who also died after she was co-sleeping with them.
Now, Reed has been charged with felony child abuse serious injury, involuntary manslaughter and child abuse/neglect serious physical injury. She is being held on a $500,000 bond.
The death of a baby while a parent is co-sleeping with them is classed as "accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed" by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
This isn't the first time that a mother has lost two of her children while co-sleeping. As previously reported, last month, Aaliyah Lykins, an Indiana-based mother was charged with reckless homicide over the death of her child who died in her bed after she fell asleep while breastfeeding in October 2023.Lykins lost another child in October 2020 while co-sleeping with the infant.
