Police in Frankfort, Illinois, said Wednesday that a 2-year-old boy was killed inside a home in the suburban Chicago village, describing the death as a domestic-related homicide.
Officers were called to a home at about 4:04 p.m. Tuesday for a report of an unresponsive juvenile, police said. CPR was already being administered when they arrived. The child was taken to a local hospital and later pronounced dead.
Police also found the child’s mother inside the home attempting self-harm. She was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Frankfort Police Chief Leanne Chelepis released a statement extending condolences and asking residents to look after one another.
“Our thoughts are with everyone affected by this tragedy,” Chelepis said. “We encourage our community to support one another with compassion, understanding, and strength as we navigate this difficult time together.”
The Will County Coroner’s Office said the boy was pronounced dead at 4:48 p.m. Tuesday at Silver Cross Hospital in what it called an apparent homicide. The Frankfort Fire Protection District was dispatched two minutes after the initial call and transported five people from the house. Police said no additional injuries occurred.
Authorities have not released the names of the child or the mother. They also have not said how the boy died or if anyone faces charges.
Detectives worked the cul-de-sac scene into Wednesday morning. One local parent, herself a mother of a 2-year-old, told NBC 5 Chicago that the case brought to mind a killing in Massachusetts.
“This is just absolutely devastating, that this could be another Lindsay Clancy situation in our neighborhood, in our community,” the parent said. “You never think it’s going to hit so close to home.”
Clancy strangled her three young children in the basement of their Duxbury, Massachusetts, home in January 2023 and then attempted to take her own life. She has pleaded not guilty by lack of criminal responsibility. Her attorney, Kevin Reddington, argued postpartum psychosis had severed her grip on reality.
Jurors in Plymouth Superior Court ended a fifth day of deliberations Wednesday without a verdict, the second time they have told Judge William Sullivan they are deadlocked. They return Thursday morning. Prosecutors say Clancy knew what she was doing.
An online fundraiser for her parents has raised close to $1 million, with donors leaving comments defending her.
Frankfort police said the investigation remains ongoing and that no additional information is available.
