Child’s death under investigation

WILTON – The state police are investigating the death of a one-year-old child today, after his mother says the boy fell down a flight of stairs.

Matteo Hanson was pronounced dead at Franklin Memorial Hospital Saturday morning, after being rushed there from Wilton by ambulance, according to Maine State Police Public Information Officer Stephen McCausland.

“The state police got involved because we investigate the death of any child in Maine under the age of three,” McCausland noted.

NorthStar Ambulance Services and Wilton Police Department officers were summoned to the Fernwald Apartments on Route 2 at 9 a.m. after receiving an emergency call from the building. Hanson reportedly fell down some stairs leading from the 2nd floor to the 1st floor.

Hanson was born on June 24, 2007. His mother is Brandy Swett.

McCausland said that an autopsy was planned for either today or Monday, and that state police detectives had interviewed Swett and hospital staff. No other information is available at this time as to how or why the child fell, or how far he fell.

“The autopsy will obviously be helpful in concluding why the child died,” McCausland said, “and what injuries he sustained.”