Manslaughter charge: Bloomington day care provider delayed calling 911 when boy couldn’t breathe

The operator of an unlicensed home day care in Bloomington neglected to promptly call for help after a 1-year-old boy struggled to breathe from having too much food in his mouth and died, according to a criminal complaint.

Kristina Elder, 50, was charged Thursday in Hennepin County District Court with second-degree manslaughter in connection with two instances on Nov. 28, 2023, when the boy’s lips turned blue before he died in her home in the 1500 block of W. 85th Street.

Elder was charged by summons and is due in court June 20. Messages have been left with Elder seeking her response to the allegations.

The complaint alleged that Elder should have called 911 after the first instance of the boy’s struggle to breathe.

According to the criminal complaint:

Officers responding to Elder’s 911 call arrived at the home to find the boy not breathing. Emergency medical personnel took the boy to a hospital, where he died. The complaint did not include the boy’s name.

Elder told the officers that she gave the boy lunch and was aware that he tended to “pack his food in his mouth,” the complaint read. After lunch, she placed the boy on a mat as she tended to other things in the home.

At some point, she noticed the boy’s lips were blue. She said she “performed a finger sweep and pulled out some of the food but felt she was pushing additional food down the [boy’s] throat, so she did not want to do any more,” the complaint continued.

The boy’s eyes soon opened, and his lips regained their natural color. She then put the boy back on the mat without calling 911 or the boy’s parents.

Elder said that when she went to check on the boy again, his lips were blue again and he appeared lifeless.

“At this time,” the complaint read, “[Elder] finally called 911, per her report. [She] could not provide a timeframe from when she performed the finger sweep to when she returned and found [the boy] turning blue again.”

The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office found that the excess food caused asphyxiation and prevented oxygen from getting to the boy’s brain.