Mother Sues Daycare After Son, 5, Dies In Accident

(CBS) -- A mother left her five-year-old son at a daycare in Michigan City last month and then hours later learned that he had died after being choked by a rope hanging from outdoor play equipment.

No mother wants to think about burying their child, but Anita LeFlore laid her 5-year-old to rest Monday. She is still grappling with questions about how adults charged with caring for him failed.

"I'm not going to ever get my baby back and it hurts so bad," said LeFlore.

Her son, Amareon Williams, choked to death after a visit to this Michigan City daycare June 9. A jump rope hanging from an outdoor playset somehow wrapped around his neck.

"It's no way form or fashion my 5-year-old son took a rope, tied it at the top and then put it around his neck and hung. It's no way," said LeFlore.

Anita LeFlore says she dropped her son off at about 8:15 a.m. so she could work. Some four hours later, the owner of Tricia's Playhouse met her with troubling news.

"Anita, oh my God. There's been an accident. Your baby fell down on a slide, bumped his head on a tree stump," she said.

She's filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the daycare and its owner.

"If their adult supervision had been present in the back yard while the kids, Amareon and other kids are playing around and on this playset, that rope would have been discovered and that rope would have been removed," said Mark Novak, an attorney representing LeFlore.

The Indiana family and Social Services Administration has closed the facility citing a lack of supervision that led to the boy's death.

The agency's records show April 21, just weeks before the incident, inspectors found six violations there including lack of background checks for two workers and failure to report abuse.

"Serious citations just six weeks before this tragedy. Does the state shut it down? No, they place it on probation," said Novak.

The LaPorte County prosecutor tells CBS 2 the case is still being investigated to see whether criminal charges could be filed. CBS 2 called the owner of the daycare, who also owns a daycare in LaPorte, Indiana.

Our call has not been returned. She has a 90 day probation period to respond to state inspectors.