WATERVILLE, Maine — Investigators have determined that there was no foul play involved in the death a 12-week-old baby boy at a Waterville homeless shelter last year.
The state medical examiner described Trenton Oakes’ death as unexpected death in infancy.
Police say as a result of the report, they are closing their investigation because there was no criminal activity involved.
A spokesman for the medical examiner tells the Morning Sentinel that when the manner of death is undetermined, that generally means the cause was natural as opposed to mechanical, such as from rolling over.
Police responded to the shelter last May for reports of a baby who had stopped breathing.
The baby’s parents were informed of the report on Monday.
Criminal is any baby bieng in a homless shelter in the first place. :(
Would you prefer it to be on the street somewhere?
How about in a low cost home for families?
I don’t understand how the babies aren’t immediately handed over to a family that CAN support a child. Just imagine what kind of life that poor baby had to look forward to….. PEOPLE….. THINK BEFORE YOU BREED!! IF YOU CAN’T SUPPORT THEM>>>>> DONT HAVE THEM!!!!
I guess you wouldn’t have considered the possibility that just maybe when this woman became pregnant her situation may have been entirely different than the one she found herself in after giving birth…..love how everyone just jumps to their own conclusions and judgements!
You make a good point. We dont know why she had to be in a shelter. I find it sad that the woman and her child could not have gone to stay with someone in the family. However not everyone has those types of options either.
Exactly my point. :)
Good idea we could have all parents take a means test and if they fail some arbitrary criteria they lose their child, even if the parents conceived their child when they could afford it but later they lost the ability to care for it.
You have no idea why that family was in a homeless shelter. MAybe they both lost their jobs and their unemployment ranout or they could not afford to keep their home after losing their income.
I also guess you support free or low cost contraception to avoid having people have kids they can’t afford.
Dhs should have been called when they first moved in the shelter. Obviously the shelter never called them to tell them a baby was homeless
DHS should have been called? So it’s your opinion that if someone finds themselves in a bad situation, for whatever the reason, they should lose their children???
Are you willing to open your home for them?
It must be very nice to sit in your cozy little chair and condemn anyone that doesn’t have as much.
I dont know what your issue is with me, but today you have been down my back twice . Please stop commenting to me if you can not be nice. Dhs usually gets involved in this type of issue. I no longer work for dhs, i left several years ago when it started to downsize but now picking up. I feel bad for this family. But yes i would open my home to them, i have a six bedroom just me and my wife and daughter
I don’t have an issue with you per say, but obviously I haven’t agreed or liked your comments given, To say that DHS should have been called simply because this woman and her baby showed up needing a temporary shelter makes no sense whatsoever. Do you seriously believe that’s reason enough to take someone’s child away from them?
First of all let me apologize that comment was not for you. Second of all no i do not believe that is a reason for them to take the baby. I just know when i worked for them it was a policy, things changed times changed and again im sorry that comment went to you, the person i responded to got removed
Not a problem! :)
if you cant afford to have a baby and give it its basic needs including food and shelter… dont have babies!!!!!
Like I said to your earlier comment, situations can sometimes change for people when they least expect it.
You may trust DHS but I don’t. I, personally, wonder just how much damage DHS is truly responsible for that has not been publicized. A little girl was killed in Chelsea,ME not so very long ago because of DHS. Of course they were indemnified by political hacks but they were as guilty as the woman convicted in the child’s death.
PS> (DHS took the child away from the family and placed her with a former DHS employee (supposedly competent individual) who placed the little girl in a basement and taped her hands and mouth and taped her into a chair. She suffocated.)
THINK BEFORE YOU WRITE. I worked in a homeless shelter for a number of years & can say that there are many young couples who lose their jobs & their homes & need a brief stay at a homeless shelter before getting back on their feet. Most homeless people are NOT the stereotypical types presented in the media. There are many who have had their homes foreclosed or suffered accidents through no fault of their own. There are also a substantial number of the homeless who are veterans. It has been often been said that most people are only a couple of paychecks away from homelessness. So don’t malign homelessness or homeless families without some investigation into the causes of homelessness.
what kind of a life would that baby have had if the parents cannot supply food and shelter already? if they did away with ALL of the welfare programs including free trips to the ER for every sneeze, those of us with jobs could actually keep our paychecks instead of taxes being taken out to support idiots that breed looking for a free ride from the lovely state of maine. If you have a baby and go to a homeless shelter you immediately get bumped up on the section 8 list… Sooooo “hey honey where are we going to live since we want to shack up” well, lets have a baby so maine will pay our rent….
Are you seriously that ignorant or do you just like ranting?
no, i actually personally know someone that did that…. so i know it happens!!!!
I dont know which is a worse place to live and raise kids…Waterville or Bangor!!
All we see out of these two cities is murder, assaults, gang violence, crimes against kids, questionable activity within law enforcement agencies and last but not least…bath salts!!
Even the city councilors cant even get along in Bangor!!!
You obviously have never lived in another state!
Babies in homeless shelters…what the heck is our society coming to?
its coming to the point where the only people that can afford to have kids are the ones sucking the life out of the welfare system. 4 years later and im still making monthly payments to the hospital for the birth of my daughter. The only ones that can afford to breed are the ones that live off the state. Must be nice to get everything for free.
Okay, so how exactly did this baby die? “Unexpected death in infancy” – what is that??
Being in a homeless shelter did not kill this baby – something else did. There are babies dying in homes too in this state.
I hope someone fowards this article to former Rep. Fred Wintle.
And then opon reading the article,
I hope Mr. Wintle apologizes to the family for making political hay out of their tradgedy.
And then I hope Mr. Wintle apologizes to the Morning Sentinel reporter that he falsely accused and threatened with a gun.
http://bangor-launch.newspackstaging.com/2011/05/23/politics/judge-orders-maine-lawmaker-to-undergo-mental-evaluation-after-weapons-charge/?ref=relatedBox