EXCLUSIVE
A two-month-old boy who was found unresponsive in family’s suburban home died as a result of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), and his father didn’t get to kiss him goodbye.
Chance Ford spent Saturday with his parents, Renee Lockett and Jake Ford, along with his uncles, cousins, and siblings at a lake near their home in Ballarat, north-west of Melbourne.
The family was celebrating two birthdays, and commemorating the suicide of an uncle 35 years ago. They spent the day laughing together and towing kids along the water on the back of a boat.
That evening, Mr Ford dropped his partner and Chance back home, before he left to quickly drop his kids from a previous relationship back to their mother.
Mr Ford’s plan had been to meet up with extended family again to continue the celebration, however, he returned home at about 9pm to find a tragedy had occurred.
His baby boy had stopped breathing and couldn’t be revived.
Following a well-publicised police investigation which involved homicide detectives, post-mortem results released on Monday night revealed that the cause of Chance’s death was SIDS – where an otherwise healthy infant suddenly dies in their sleep.
Now, Chance’s uncle Joseph Ford has paid tribute to the little boy and detailed to Daily Mail what is known about how the tragedy unfolded.
Renee Lockett and Jake Ford (pictured) lost their two-month-old baby son, Chance Ford, to SIDS on Saturday night
Renee Lockett (pictured) panicked and ran off when her son wasn’t breathing
Mr Ford lashed out at neighbours who described his family as aggressive and uncaring because they screamed and ran once they realised Chance was dead.
Neighbours had also said Chance was dead on their living room floor, but Mr Ford said that was not the case – Jake and Renee actually ran straight to the neighbour’s house, who is also a family member, to get help.
‘They ran as quick as they could, scared and feeling helpless,’ he said.
‘Needing help, needing anyone, while still hoping, begging and praying for the best outcome which was for their baby just to take another breath, hoping to hear him just cry.’
Mr Ford said there was no argument and any yelling after Chance died was Jake crying and screaming to understand what happened in the short time he was gone.
While the neighbour was with the baby, Renee ran away.
‘I don’t think she could face it and I can only believe she was in complete fear,’ Mr Ford said.
‘Fear of what she was seeing, fear of my brother’s questions about what happened while not knowing the answers, fear of what was happening to her baby in front of her eyes.
Police arrived on the scene and began an extensive investigation into the boy’s death. It was initially a homicide probe – but the death has now been ruled non-suspicious
Chance Ford’s cause of death was SIDS, where an infant dies suddenly and unexpectedly in their sleep (scene pictured)
‘Maybe she couldn’t watch any longer maybe everything got too overwhelming and her instincts kicked in to just run, run and run.’
When she ran, Jake chased her looking for answers.
Mr Ford said his brother didn’t react like a reasonable person would because it was not a reasonable situation and, in his pain, he wondered whether his partner was responsible.
‘Nobody can judge or knows how they will react in such an extreme situation unless they have experienced it,’ he said.
‘He screamed in anguish, he screamed in disbelief, he screamed in extreme pain that buckled his knees and dropped him to the ground without any power in his body to retain the strength to hold himself up.’
A neighbour previously told Daily Mail that Renee knocked on his door asking if she could use his phone to call a taxi.
He called a taxi for her and she waited inside for about ten minutes, barely saying a word.
She had no shoes on, no bag or wallet, and said she had a fight with her boyfriend.
Mr Ford said Jake was asked to leave his family home by police, who arrived on the scene shortly after Chance’s death.
He kept asking what was happening to his son, and whether he was still alive, but no one would tell him.
‘At some stage, my brother was even told his baby was breathing again only to keep asking was he still alive,’ he said.
‘He never got the opportunity to kiss his baby goodbye, was never allowed the anytime with his child at all.’
Mr Ford said the family still don’t know exactly what happened within the time it took Jake to drop his other children back home.
In the meantime, he asked that his family be given the time to mourn the tragic loss.
‘The baby’s name was Chance, because everyone needs a chance in life – as announced by my brother the day he was born,’ he said.
‘We are the family devastated, heart broken and mourning the loss of our beautiful baby Chance.’