ROCK ISLAND, Ill. (AP) — A 3-year-old northwestern Illinois girl died after she apparently fell from a window on a frigid night and couldn’t get back inside her family’s home, police said.
Charlotte Handelman appears to have fallen out of a second-floor window at her family’s Rock Island home between 11 p.m. Monday and 6 a.m. Tuesday, when she was found outside, police said.
The home is in the Quad Cities area, which is located along the Illinois-Iowa state line. She was pronounced dead at a hospital and preliminary autopsy findings show she died from hypothermia, The Moline Dispatch/The Rock Island Argus reported.
Rock Island County Coroner Brian Gustafson called the child’s death “absolutely tragic.”
“It’s being investigated as nothing more than a tragic accident. She was a beautiful little girl,” he said.