Autopsies on 5-month-old twins found dead in their Little Village home were inconclusive, the Cook County medical examiner’s office said Friday.
Four other children living in the home have been placed in “protective custody” while authorities investigate the deaths, according to Kendall Marlowe, a spokesman for the state Department of Children and Family Services.
The babies, Julian and Giselle Romero, were found unresponsive in their crib Thursday morning in the family’s home in the 4100 block of West 25th Street, police said.
Their mother, Victoria Rodriguez, 19, said she woke up early and put a blanket on them. When she went to check on the babies at 8:30 a.m., Rodriguez said the blanket was covering their heads and they weren’t moving.
“I moved the blanket. They didn’t move at all,” she said. “I think that they suffocated.”
She said the babies had been born premature but were healthy. They would have been 6 months old on May 17.
A law enforcement source said the infants appeared well-fed and there were no signs of trauma.
DCFS said it has had contact with the family since March 2011, when the agency determined that an allegation of abuse involving an older child was credible.
Rodriguez said the allegation involved her ex-boyfriend who “tried to choke” their child, a girl, who was 7 months old at the time.
Then on April 9 of this year, the agency began an investigation into an allegation of neglect involving the twins.
Rodriguez said she had missed an appointment at a medical clinic because the twins’ father had gotten his driver’s license suspended.
