A 2-year-old girl has been found dead in sub-zero temperatures just outside her family home in New Hampshire.
Police believe the toddler, identified by the family as Sofia Van Schoick, wandered outside her family's apartment in Newport in the middle of the night and was then unable to get back inside.
Police are not treating Sofia's death as suspicious as the incident "appears to be a bad accident."
"For reasons that are unknown and probably will never be known, in the middle of the night, she decided to go outside and then wasn't able to get back in," Newport Police Chief Jim Burroughs told Valley News. "At this time, the accident remains under investigation by the Newport Police Department and the Sullivan County Attorney's Office."
The child's unresponsive body was found by neighbors around 7 a.m. on January 14.
Shane Rowe said his girlfriend was woken up by the sound of a girl crying at around 4 a.m. but they went back to bed after they were unable to see anything.
The pair then went outside later that morning and spotted Sofia's body on the ground outside their neighbors' apartment
"I saw a little girl next to the bottom of the stairway," Rowe told WMUR. "I said to myself, 'I hope that's a doll.'
"My girlfriend came out, and she ran out and she went over and saw that she was actually a child. She banged on the door to alert the parents.
"It's got to be devastating because I know if it were my child, I would be torn apart," Rowe added.
The girl had wandered out of her home wearing just her pajamas. On the morning in question, temperatures in Newport plummeted to around minus 21 degrees Fahrenheit, according to police.
"We'll never know what happened," the girl's grandfather, who did not want to show his face on camera, told local news station WHDH. "Why didn't she go back up the stairs? Did she fall down the stairs? We don't know."
Elsewhere, the girl's mother has paid tribute to her "precious" girl following her tragic death.
"Sofia was the happiest and smartest toddler you would have ever met," Courtney Van Schoick told Valley News. "She's so loved and missed.
"She was the sweetest little thing," she added. "The biggest blue eyes I'd ever seen."
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on US politics, domestic policy ... Read more
To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here.
