By Theresa Vargas
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 4, 2006

Abraham Isaac Roque's babysitter knows there are two versions of how the 7-month-old child full of smiles stopped breathing, and later died, at her Haymarket home.

His mother told authorities that he fell out of bed. Prince William County police, however, have launched a homicide investigation, searching the family's home yesterday for signs of "domestic upheaval": blood, soiled diapers, medication.

"I don't know. I don't know what happened," the babysitter, who would not give her name, said in Spanish. Over and over again she said, sobbing: "I don't know. I don't know."

This is what she does know:

She met Abraham's mother a few months ago and agreed to baby-sit as a favor. She was watching the child Tuesday at her Madison Court home when he stopped breathing during an afternoon nap. She called for an ambulance.

Haymarket police officer Bart Kenworthy was the first to arrive. A new father himself, he administered CPR -- with no response from the child -- until the rescue squad arrived. Within minutes, ambulances, a fire engine and police cars clogged the cul-de-sac.

A neighbor, Pepper Greynolds, said she ran across the street where the mother stood crying. "I said, 'Are you okay?' " Greynolds recalled. "She said, 'My baby, my baby.' That's all she kept saying."

According to a police search warrant, the child's mother told authorities that Abraham had fallen out of bed Sunday at the family's home on Catharpin Valley Drive in Gainesville. The family did not take him to a doctor at the time. Two days later, police got the distress call from the sitter about 3:42 p.m.

He died about 5 p.m.

The investigation was launched after autopsy results showed that the child's injuries "were not consistent with a fall as the cause of death," according to the warrant.

"I believe that there is evidence to support the charge of Felony Murder located within the residence," Detective Benjamen Grantham wrote in the warrant.

Yesterday, no one answered the door at the home -- a stately two-story structure with a fountain in the middle of a circular driveway. The house is less than five miles from the babysitter's home.

"He was so little. He was so happy," the babysitter said. "I feel so bad for this. I hurt. I hurt for the baby. I hurt for the situation."

Prince William police said they are awaiting additional autopsy tests.

It is not unusual for such an investigation to continue several weeks before all tests are done, said Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Sandra Sylvester, who has tried more than 25 such cases in the last 18 years.

Any case involving the death of a child, she said, is difficult to build.