BOTHELL – The King County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the death of an 18-month-old girl strangled by the cords of a window blind at a day care center near this east Seattle suburb.
The King County Medical Examiner ruled Jaclyn Frank’s death last Thursday an accident. Investigators are trying to determine if there were any suspicious circumstances, Sgt. Mark Toner said.
The state Department of Social and Health Services has indefinitely suspended the license of Julie Norris, who ran the in-home day care center where the girl died.
DSHS spokesman Jeff Weathersby said Norris has been cited for health and safety violations four times in recent years: in 1997 and 2004 for being overcapacity, and again in 2004 for what he described as a supervisory issue, and for an environmental issue.
Weathersby did not disclose any details about the citations but told the King County Journal that supervisory violations usually relate to not having enough employees on hand to meet the state-mandated staff-to-child ratio. He said a facility environment violation generally deals with safety or hygiene issues.
Medics from nearby Kirkland were called to Norris’ home around 3:30 p.m. Thursday and found Norris’ husband performing CPR on the toddler. Medics continued trying to resuscitate the child for 25 minutes, said Robin Paster of the Kirkland Fire Department.
If Norris is cleared in a Child Protective Services investigation, Weathersby said she could reopen her day care.
Norris has declined to comment on the incident.
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