Daycare Center Director Detained for Causing Death of 9-Month-Old Infant by Placing Pillow on Face

Director: "Tried to Put to Sleep by Walking Around Without Napping"
Police: "Possible Suffocation... Will Request Autopsy"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyunjung] The director who caused the death of a 9-month-old infant by placing a pillow on the child's face at the daycare center she operated has been arrested.

On the 12th, the Women and Youth Investigation Unit of the Gyeonggi Southern Provincial Police Agency arrested a woman in her 60s, identified as A, on charges of child abuse resulting in death. On the 10th, at the daycare center she runs in Jeongnam-myeon, Hwaseong City, Gyeonggi Province, A is accused of covering 9-month-old boy B's face with a blanket and placing a pillow on top during nap time, causing his death. After nap time ended, when B did not wake up, childcare teachers performed artificial respiration and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), but B never regained consciousness. At around 3:38 p.m., a childcare teacher reported to 119 that "B, who was sleeping, has died." The fire department, responding to the call, transported B to the hospital and simultaneously requested police cooperation. The police interviewed A and other daycare staff and reviewed internal closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage before urgently detaining A. During the investigation, A reportedly stated, "B was wandering around instead of napping, so I did that to put him to sleep."

The police suspect that B may have died from suffocation and plan to conduct an autopsy to determine the exact cause of death. Additionally, the police have secured two months' worth of internal daycare CCTV footage to investigate whether there were any further abusive acts.

Separately, Hwaseong City plans to impose administrative sanctions such as suspension of operations on the daycare center where the incident occurred. On the 11th, the day after the accident, Hwaseong Mayor Jeong Myeong-geun visited the site and held an emergency countermeasure meeting. The city intends to urgently transfer 12 children currently enrolled at the daycare to nearby centers by the 14th. Furthermore, to prevent similar incidents in the future, on the 14th, emergency child abuse prevention education will be conducted for 750 daycare center directors within Hwaseong City, and inspections will be carried out across all daycare centers. The city is also considering extending the current 60-day CCTV video storage period at daycare centers to a maximum of 90 days.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.