Miami

Investigation Continues Into Death of Child Left in Daycare Van in Miami

Investigators in Miami are searching for answers in what led to the tragic death of a 2-year-old boy who was found unconscious inside a daycare van.

The Vision for Life Day Care Center is no longer operating, according to a spokesperson for the Department of Children and Family, the agency that regulates day care centers. The center was not authorized to transport children. DCF has opened a death investigation and is assisting law enforcement.

At the Vision For Life Day Care Center Thursday parents came to fill out paperwork to take their kids out of the center after 2-year-old Angel Gabriel Matute-Chavez died after he was discovered in a van Wednesday.

"How can you forget a whole child in a car, a whole baby in a car?" parent Jessica Lewis said. "It's children you go to pick up so how can you just not remember who you brought with you?"

Lewis was at the school Thursday withdrawing her kids.

"Absolutely, yes, they are not staying in this school at, they are not coming back to this school," she said. "Even if it does open back up which I don't think that it should."

Justin Beckham, an attorney for one of the owners of the daycare, Karen Julissa Aviles, said she is "completely devastated" by the news.

"She has dedicated the last 13 years of her life to the care of children, and she is in shock," Beckham said in a statement. "We have reached out the City of Miami Police department in order to cooperate fully with their investigation. She wishes to specifically express her deepest condolences to the child’s family."

At the women's shelter where the boy was staying with his mother, other women described the horror the boy's mother is going through.

"Her reaction was when she got home, she fell to the ground, she was crying and her mother had to help her up and put her back inside the car because who can handle that," Charlene Lafleur said. "Believe me, I am a mother and I almost went to tears."

Police say the call came for help when the toddler was found in the van. He was rushed to Jackson Memorial Hospital but later died.

"We are devastated by the loss of Angel Gabriel Matute-Chavez and grieve with all those who loved him," DCF said in a statement. "The child had no previous interaction with the child welfare system."

"The center had no major, class one child care violations. The center was not authorized to transport children," the DCF statement read. "DCF child care licensing staff will continue to closely monitor the center."

Lafleur says other moms almost put their kids in the van.

"We considered using it but they stepped in and couldn't accept no more kids," she said.

The county also has an ordinance requiring child care center vans be equipped with an alarm to drivers to check any vehicle with kids. But one parent whose child rode in the van told NBC 6 she never saw anything like that.

The county said they do inspect for those alarms to alert drivers. The county department that oversees those inspections say they went to the center in August 2014 to inform them of the requirement. 

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