Baby girl dies at ‘unlicensed’ day care at Hawaii military reservation

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Honolulu police are investigating the death of a 7-month-old infant who died at what’s being called an unlicensed day care at Aliamanu Military Reservation over the weekend.

Hawaii News Now first learned of the baby girl’s death on Monday morning through a police brief that indicated the baby girl had been found unresponsive by her babysitter.

The report summary indicated “there were no suspicious circumstances or evidence of foul play."

But new, troubling details have come to light since then during what was supposed to be a town hall meeting Monday night at Fort Shafter to address recent concerns about the conditions in military housing.

A GoFundMe page set up Tuesday identifies the baby girl as Abigail.

According to the post, Abigail — who was described as being full of life and having “the biggest smile with eyes that could light up a room” — was found dead Sunday morning while in childcare.

Her mother, who has been identified only as Anna, was reportedly raising the infant and her 2-year-old toddler brother on her own. The page indicates the baby’s father was away on drill when she died.

According to an article in Stars and Stripes, a newspaper geared toward a military audience, the two siblings were being watched overnight at an unlicensed day care in a house at Aliamanu Military Reservation.

The article indicates the day care had been reported by at least one neighbor multiple times — who repeatedly raised her concerns about unattended children to the Army housing authority and the military police.

While the unlicensed day care was apparently raided several times and served with two official cease-and-desist orders, it kept reopening, according to resident Katie Camario.

Camario told the Stars and Stripes she finally filed a sworn complaint last week under the military’s Interactive Customer Evaluation, which brought the issue to the direct attention of the commander of Army Garrison Hawaii.

According to the newspaper, military police shut the unlicensed day care down on Feb. 21.

Three days later, the baby girl was found dead.

At this time, police are handling the unattended death investigation, but sources say it is likely that NCIS will take over since it happened within military housing.

Honolulu police say they are still awaiting autopsy results from the Medical Examiner’s Office.

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