Smithfield, Va. - According to autopsy results, four-month-old Ivy Rose Flamini died from being exposed to the cold. More than four years after police closed the case, Ivy's death is now being re-investigated because of concerns about another child.
Bruce and Sandra Johnson live down the street from where Ivy lived in Smithfield. Sandra says she will never forget that cold December night in 2008.
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"The cop cars were just flying down the road, one after the other, just going,” she says. “So we knew something terrible had happened. We weren't surprised actually that the baby had died."
Two have since been arrested, Ivy's mother, 24-year old Alicia Flamini and her boyfriend at the time, 28 year-old Colten Butler. Both have been charged with felony child abuse and neglect.
"Baby’s don't just die for no reason, and we know that the living conditions down there were not very nice,” Sandra Johnson says. “There were a lot of people living there. “
Colten Butler was not the baby's father, but investigators say the two do have a child together, a little boy according to the Johnsons. The boy is what led police to reopen Ivy's investigation.
Bruce Johnson recalls a time he says Butler was on a motorcycle with the boy.
"He was in nothing but a diaper and Colten had nothing but a diaper on and of course the baby didn't have a helmet on, riding all around the neighborhood,” he says.
Investigators say the boy is now in the hands of relatives. As for baby Ivy's death, the Johnsons hope justice will finally be served.
"It would be a shame for that child's death to be unsolved and unpunished,” Sandra Johnson says.
