Crying Baby Suffocated Under Comforter During 'Time Out' as Parents Smoked Outside

Photo: Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office

William Herring, 42, and Brianna Brochhausen, 23, were detained Monday, more than a year after the death of their 4-month-old son, Hunter.

Police in Springfield Township, New Jersey, were called to a hotel on the night of February 14, 2018, responding to a call about an infant who’d stopped breathing.

“The investigation revealed that Herring and Brochhausen were frustrated because their son, Hunter, would not stop crying on that night, and decided he needed to be placed in a ‘time out,'” a statement on the indictment from the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office alleges.

“He was positioned on his stomach on the bed, and a comforter was pulled over him, covering his head and entire body,” the allegations in the statement continue. “The parents then went outside to smoke cigarettes, returning to the room approximately 10 minutes later, where they discovered that Hunter was not breathing and was unresponsive.”

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An autopsy revealed Hunter died from “complications of suffocation,” and that his death was a homicide.

It was unclear Wednesday if Herring and Brochhausen had entered pleas to the charges they face.

PEOPLE could not find information about their attorneys.

source: people.com