3-year-old found dead in swing was there two days, died of dehydration and hypothermia

A Maryland medical examiner said the 3-year-old boy found dead in a park swing being pushed by his mother died of dehydration and hypothermia after sitting in the swing for two days. 

The initial autopsy was ruled inconclusive, but the child’s death has now been ruled a homicide. 

Officers responding to a call of a woman pushing a child for hours found Ji’Aire Donnell Lee dead and took his mother, Romechia Simms, to a hospital for evaluation. She was discharged four days later and attended her son’s funeral on June 5.

Simms has a history of mental illness.

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Investigators said Simms, 24, arrived at the park with her son shortly after 11 a.m. on May 20. He was alive at the time, they said. 

The child’s death was discovered two days later, on May 22.

Although the death was ruled a homicide, prosecutors did not immediately say if there would be criminal charges in the case.