Julian Romero                                         Giselle Romero

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Giselle and Julian were born premature at Saint Anthony Hospital. They were happy and healthy.

 

Victoria Rodriguez found her infant twins Giselle and Julian in the same crib, not breathing. They were unresponsive she tried to wake them up by rocking them and splashing cold water on their faces, but they didn't wake up. "I didn't know what to do," Rodriguez said. Rodriguez had woken up earlier that morning and put a blanket on them. When she went to check on the babies at 8:30 a.m. 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.” Josue Romero returned home after dropping off four of his other children at school and found his wife in tears. I went to the room and I noticed she was crying on the floor in the closet, holding her head," he said. "She was trying to give my kids mouth to mouth, CPR. I checked the babies, they were blue. There was nothing I could do."

 

Julian was pronounced dead at 9:52 a.m. at Mount Sinai Hospital, but information regarding Giselle is unknown. Julian and Giselle appeared to be well fed and there were no signs of trauma. Experts said that both children dying of SIDS, sudden infant death syndrome is highly unlikely, but not impossible. Autopsies on the twins were inconclusive.

The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services had previous allegations of neglect against both Victoria, and her husband Josue Romero. DCFS had contact with the family in March of 2011 after they received reports of neglect and abuse against Romero and an uncle, when the agency determined that an allegation of abuse involving an older child was credible. Rodriguez said the allegation involved a relative who “tried to choke’’ the child, a girl, who was seven months old at the time. Then on April 9th 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.