ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. – An indictment follows the second such reported suffocation death, inside the same North St. Louis County home and involving the same mother.

The North County Police Cooperative recently completed its investigation into the second death.

Corp. Benjamin Santoyo said, “Working with children’s division and medical examiners and forensic pathologists. … When these officers go through it all and they learned of certain things, they determined there was already a pre-existing fatality.”

Shonice Sawyer, 34, is now charged with felony child endangerment – resulting in the death of a child. Authorities says it’s the first time a mother in Missouri has been charged with the death of her infant while co-sleeping.

Court records say Sawyer’s three-month-old son died in December 2023 while co-sleeping and that previously – her two-month-old daughter died in June 2021 while co-sleeping.

“This investigation took a lot of time because ultimately everyone is a victim in this scenario,” Corporal Santoyo said.

A St. Louis County grand jury returned an indictment this past July, but it only became public this month after an arrest. Sawyer’s pleaded not guilty in the case that came before a judge Tuesday.

It was defendant Sawyer’s first court appearance after bonding out. She declined to talk with FOX 2 about her case.

Unsafe sleeping is often the biggest cause of infant deaths, according to the Missouri Department of Social Services State Technical Assistance Team.

The team told us 79 infant suffocations in Missouri accounted for the most infant deaths in 2022.

The number fell to 51 infant suffocations in Missouri in 2023, dropping it third behind infant deaths by firearms (73) and car crashes (69).

OB/GYN Dr. Jill Scherbel told us, “You might smother your baby while you’re sleeping with your baby, which we have good intentions, we just want to cuddle our baby. The problem with breastfeeding is it induces hormones that make us sleep as well.”

She said mothers should breastfeed sitting upright, “And then put your baby down before you go back to sleep.”

Dr. Scherbel added, “The crib is not a place to play so we don’t have stuffed animals or pillows or anything that’s soft or loose in the bed because the baby could then suffocate.”

Defendant Sawyer is due back in court in January to answer to her child endangerment charge.