Spring Hill woman charged in infant death after unsafe sleep investigation

A Spring Hill mother was arrested months after her 1-month-old daughter died on Folkstone Street, after investigators said a medical examiner linked the infant’s death to an unsafe sleep environment compounded by pneumonia.

Deputies were called to the 8000 block of Folkstone Street after a 911 call reported an unresponsive infant. When first responders arrived, the baby was unconscious and not breathing. Hernando County Fire Rescue rushed the child to Oak Hill Hospital, where she was later pronounced dead despite medical intervention. The case initially read as a tragic medical emergency, but the medical examiner’s findings shifted it into a criminal investigation.

Investigators charged 33-year-old Cheyenne Lee Burke with aggravated manslaughter of a child after reviewing the death of her infant daughter from late last year. Burke allegedly told detectives she had been co-sleeping with the baby even after receiving safe-sleep education and warnings from medical staff and the Department of Children and Families. She also told investigators she had placed her 22-month-old child in a pack-and-play around 9 p.m., while the infant was later found in distress. The charge reflects the conclusion that the baby’s death was tied not only to illness, but to sleep conditions that placed her at risk.

Florida health officials have repeatedly warned that sleep-related deaths are one of the leading causes of death for infants between 1 month and 1 year of age. The Florida Department of Children and Families says children under age 1 make up nearly 100% of unsafe-sleep fatalities in the state, and 58.8% of infant sleep-related deaths reviewed in 2019 happened in an adult bed. State guidance and recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics are consistent: babies should sleep alone, on their backs, in a crib or other firm, flat, safe sleep space.

The case also echoes a longtime message from Hernando County authorities. In a 2013 safe-sleep campaign, the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office warned that infant death risk is far higher when babies sleep in adult beds and urged donations of pack-and-plays to emergency and law-enforcement stations. The Florida Child Abuse Death Review System exists to review child fatalities in hopes of preventing future deaths, and Burke’s arrest shows how those reviews, medical findings and safe-sleep warnings can converge into a manslaughter case when investigators believe a preventable sleep environment contributed to a child’s death.