Family thriller in Lower Austria

Young father (22) wakes up next to dead baby

Investigation after the tragic death of a newborn child in Lower Austria (symbolic image)(Bild: Ruslan Galiullin)

A terrible family tragedy in Lower Austria: a father is suspected of murder and his little daughter, just three weeks old, is dead. But suddenly everything is completely different ...

This harrowing family thriller takes place last weekend in southern Lower Austria. When a young father wakes up, his three-and-a-half-week-old baby is lying lifeless next to him. As his newborn daughter was no longer breathing, the young father panicked and called the emergency services.

But even the medics who arrive are unable to help the baby - little Laura (name changed by the editors) is pronounced dead on the spot.

Murder alert: sleeping baby crushed to death?
In addition to the immense pain for the family and relatives, there is also a terrible suspicion: murder alert!

Was it a homicide or a terrible accident? Did the 22-year-old even suffocate or crush his daughter unintentionally in her sleep? The violence group of the Lower Austrian State Criminal Police Office gets involved - but the broken father is soon exonerated. Because according to the autopsy of the baby's body, everything is completely different!

The examinations reveal that the three-and-a-half-week-old girl died of so-called sudden infant death syndrome. This is still one of the greatest mysteries of modern medicine.

Year after year, there are countless cases in Austria in which babies who appear to be perfectly healthy simply stop breathing in their sleep for no apparent reason.

A silent, eerie death throes. Unnoticed by the parents, who are left with the grief and often agonizing self-doubt of not having done enough.