Woodbridge Babysitter Charged in Infant's Death

Woodbridge, NJ - A woman who was watching as many as eight infants in her “unsanitary” home has been charged in connection with the death of a 6-month-old boy, authorities announced Wednesday.

The infant died while in her care on Dec. 1, Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew Carey said.

Marianne McIntire-Caulfield, 62, of the Iselin section of Woodbridge, has been charged with a second-degree count of endangering the welfare of a child.

McIntire-Caulfield was watching the infant boy, along with seven other babies, at her home on Middlesex Avenue on Dec. 1 when she noticed the child was in distress, the county prosecutor said.

She called police at 4:47 p.m. and when EMTs arrived, they found the child unconscious. First responders desperately tried to perform CPR on the baby and he was then rushed to JFK Medical Center in Edison. He was pronounced dead at the hospital of a cardiac arrest, according to an earlier Patch report on the tragic death.

Woodbridge police began investigating immediately, aided by detectives with the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office. McIntire-Caulfield was babysitting as many as eight infants in her home at the time of the boy’s death, police said. Her home was also subjected to unsanitary conditions, detectives allege, but did not specify details.

McIntire-Caulfield was not a licensed daycare operator, Middlesex County prosecutor’s spokesman Jim O’Neill tells Patch. She was simply a babysitter, he said.

An autopsy was done on the child by the Middlesex County Medical Examiner’s Office, but is incomplete pending the results of toxicological testing.

McIntire-Caulfield turned herself in today to Woodbridge police headquarters, and her bail was set at $100,000.