This is the series of events after the tragic death of Addison May Elizabeth Due. Addy May was a beautiful one year old little girl who could brighten our day with her smile. She was a happy little girl who was full of life. On September 21st at 8:44 am, our families lives were changed forever. Addy spent the weekend with her father and never came back home. The police stated that her father had found her in the floor unresponsive, cold and blue after he awoke. At first all we were told was that Addy had died in her sleep and thats all they could tell us. Addy's father has several family members on the police force and his mother works at the Howell County Court House and one of the detectives in charge had been a long time friend and neighbor of the father for several years. When he was taken in to submit his statement, a family member called to see if they had tested his blood alcohol level and they said that they weren't able to give us any information . So, we requested that it be done. We later found out that it was never done, even though we knew his history of alcohol abuse.  Addy's Fathers statement he admitted to having some drinks that night and there was an empty whiskey bottle found in the trash by his night stand. The police failed to test his blood alcohol level that day, even after it had been requested by our family. The detective stated that they had no reason to test him, even though he had admitted to drinking that night. Our family believes it should be mandatory for Drug and Alcohol testing to be done on any person involved in a Co-sleeping fatality at the time of the incident and should be made a law within the state.  We had several meetings at the Police station where we were told very little information and in fact one of the officer's said that " No one was arrested, so that in itself should tell us something". We soon received a letter from Child Services that no charges were going to be filed in the case because there was not enough evidence to support any allegations.   The account of the incident that the  detective told us was that Addy's dad had been helping the neighbors cook dinner and he had left the children with his mother. He had a couple drinks and was walking back and forth checking on the children. He said he came home at 11:00 that night and that she had been found by her dad that morning when he was awoken by Addy's three year old brother wanting breakfast. He then awoke and found her in the floor and then began screaming for his mom in the next room, whom he lived with and she then called 911 at 8:44 am. It was later discovered that she had been posting onto facebook at 8:33 a.m. while Addy had been deceased since two o'clock a.m. in the next room.  According to the coroner's time of death it was at approximately 2:00 am and our family had to find out from the obituary because no one had bothered to notify us her time of death. Addy's 11 year old  half sister was also there that night, stating that her father returned home at 1:30 a.m. and not 11:30 a.m. like he had told the police. None of these stories are adding up or making sense.  The detective stated that the baby was found in the bedroom floor and when he arrived at the scene the baby was in the living room floor with no clothes on or diaper on her, but found the diaper she had been wearing next to the bed and was so soaked with urine it weighed five to seven pounds.  We asked the officer if they were going to continue the investigation due to the alcohol bottle and neglect of changing her diaper and he said it was accidental and they couldn't arrest him for being a crappy father. From this point we waited until November 10, 2014 to hear back from the autopsy report. The final diagnosis was positional asphyxia resulting from co-sleeping. The report stated:  She had multiple petechiae on her face, arms and chest and hemorrhage in the thymus.  The report said she was found in the bed but the police told us she was found in the floor. The police also told us her diaper was found on the floor and Addy was unclothed when she was found but the autopsy report stated the child was wearing a urine soaked diaper.  There are so many inconsistencies that I feel this needs to be investigated further. Addy was one year old and instincts for a child of that age is to wake up and fight for a breath, unless he had passed out on top of her and she couldn’t move. She would have fought for every breath at her age.  None of this makes sense !!!! Even if it was accidental there should have been an investigation into this situation with a child of this age.  Nothing anyone can say or do will bring Addy back to us but she can’t speak for herself so we are her voice, to find out what happened to her on that fateful night. She needs justice to be served. She didn’t deserve to die because of her father’s negligence. If she had been at home that weekend this wouldn’t have happened. If he hadn’t been drinking this wouldn’t have happened. This all could have been prevented. So we are asking everyone to please support us in making The Addison Law, which will make it mandatory that all persons involved in the incident of a Co-Sleeping death be drug and alcohol tested. We ask that you sign and help give Addy a voice, help us make a difference!
Thank You.