How did Lucas Braman die?

WEST DENNIS — One year after their toddler son Lucas Braman died in his crib under mysterious circumstances, Jenn Cronin and Michael Braman of West Dennis still don’t know the cause of death — and wonder if they ever will.

The red-haired boy was just 17 days shy of his second birthday when two women caring for him found him unresponsive in his crib Feb. 13, 2014, at their home on Winslow Gray Road in South Yarmouth.

If it was sudden unexplained death syndrome — a term that covers the rare and unexpected death of children older than infants — it came with a twist.

Lucas was wrapped “burrito-style” in eight pounds of blanket with a blue full-face hockey helmet covering his silky hair, according to a report by the state Department of Children and Families.

Authorities ruled out asphyxiation but have not publicly determined a cause of death, although DCF said in its April report that abusive actions by caretakers Sheryl Erb, 25, and Elizabeth Cavallini, 22, contributed to the fatality.

The report also contains multiple allegations of abuse against Lucas’ sister, Layla Braman, now 4, including a broken arm.

Cronin and Braman, who lost custody of both children after a domestic dispute, say they are retaining a private attorney and plan to hold their own private autopsy. They wonder if a recent toxicology report ordered by investigators might hold clues to how the little boy died.

“I want to go over the autopsy and toxicology reports,” Cronin, 28, said during an interview at the couple’s studio apartment in West Dennis on Tuesday evening.

“I want to know what they’re going to do about the allegations of Layla,” Cronin said. “I want to know what’s to be done. I don’t understand why nothing’s being done.”

Brian Glenny, the assistant district attorney in charge of the investigation, confirmed that a toxicological screen of tissues and bodily fluids ordered months ago has been completed. But he said he can’t comment on the findings or on the case in general. “It’s ongoing,” he said.

The child abuse allegations are a separate investigation, also ongoing, Glenny said.

Cronin said she wants Layla to return to Children’s Cove, an agency in Hyannis that conducts forensic investigations into child sexual and other abuse, for an interview.

Layla was interviewed at Children’s Cove the day of Lucas’ death and one month later, Cronin said. But she said the little girl was still too frightened by her experiences at her caretakers’ house to disclose abuse to investigators.

“She didn’t feel safe. She didn’t feel secure,” Cronin said.

Abuse allegations reported by DCF include pinching, biting, spanking and immersing the children in cold showers.

In addition, DCF investigators say the little girl, who now is in foster care with Cronin’s mother, told several people that her arm broke when Cavallini twisted it, not from accidentally falling off a bed as Cavallini told officials at Children’s Hospital in Boston.

“Every person she’s told it’s been the same story,” Cronin said. “It hasn’t changed. Her allegations are matching the medical records.”

She said Layla tells people that Cavallini grabbed her by the arm and broke it when she was jumping on the bed at bedtime. Layla heard the bone snap; it was a spiral fracture, Cronin said.

Layla also accused Cavallini of biting her and Lucas. A pediatrician noted bite marks on Lucas but did not measure them to see if they were adult or child size, according to DCF.

There was more.

“Layla complains that Liz put her in cold showers and put soap on her face,” Cronin said. She said the preschooler also says that Cavallini used to wrap her in blankets at nap time.

The use of weighted blankets is a trend among parents of children with sensory issues including autism. They are said to have a calming effect.

DCF investigators tracked the two blankets used on Lucas — one 3 pounds, one 5 pounds — to an interventional specialist who told them only one should be used at a time. She said she never told the couple to wrap the child “burrito style.”

An unidentified professional interviewed by DCF told investigators he advised the caretakers that Lucas should wear the helmet at all times, including at night.

But what Lucas was wearing wasn’t a specially fitted medical helmet. It was a large, full-faced Bauer hockey helmet with padding on the inside.

Cavallini also told investigators she gave Lucas niacin pills to stimulate his nervous system, which an unidentified physician told DCF investigators was “extremely weird” for a toddler.

The doctor also criticized the women’s claim it was OK to leave Lucas and Layla alone in their rooms for up to three hours “so they could develop imaginations.”

Parents of children with autism sometimes use niacin as supplemental therapy to reduce symptoms including anxiety and agitation.

Also know as vitamin B-3, niacin has been known to cause people to flush or experience hot flashes. Cronin says she wonders if Lucas had a febrile seizure under the weight of the therapeutic blankets and helmet

Lucas tended to run hot, especially at night, Cronin said. “He would sweat. He would kick off the blankets. He hated blankets.”

The day after Lucas died, Cavallini told a reporter Lucas had been diagnosed with autism, but she suspected he had developmental delays because of being born to drug-addicted parents.

Cronin, who said both she and Braman are now clean and sober, said Lucas was never diagnosed as being autistic and was released with a clean bill of health after being treated at Cape Cod Hospital for opiate addiction at birth.

Cronin said she took drugs for infected teeth and pain following a car accident. She said she is now on an oral form of Vivitrol, which blocks the narcotic effects of drugs and alcohol.

DCF was involved with the family at Lucas’ birth due to his parents’ drug addiction and again in October 2013, when the agency removed the Braman children from their parents' custody after a domestic dispute.

The dispute occurred while Cronin and Braman were staying temporarily with Cavallini and Erb, who is Cronin’s cousin.

After a brief stint in foster care the children were placed by a judge with Cavallini and Erb in November 2013. DCF cited “clinical concerns” in opposing the placement with Erb and Cavallini, who told a reporter she is bipolar and at times has relied on the use of a service dog.

But according to Cavallini, it was Lucas who was sickly and disturbed.

She said he was prone to head banging, biting, pulling out clumps of hair and sometimes even had trouble breathing. In an interview with the Cape Cod Times shortly after the little boy’s death, she called him “a really strange child.”

His biological parents and even his former foster mother, who didn’t want to be named, wonder where that portrayal came from.

They said Lucas was a happy and affectionate — albeit energetic — child.

“Everybody that walked in the door got a kiss,” Braman said.

DCF investigators concluded that if Lucas acted strangely, it was because he was being abused by his temporary caregivers.

They said a child abuse expert attributed a drastic change in Lucas’ behavior to “acute trauma” experienced in the Cape-style house with the playset in the backyard.

While the caretakers had “committed to taking care of Lucas and Layla and keeping them safe, they actually abused and neglected them, which ultimately played a role in Lucas’ death and has caused Layla trauma that is affecting her ability to function today,” according to the report. The Times first wrote about the report June 1 after Cronin shared the contents with a reporter.

Erb and Cavallini, who are engaged to be married and are living in Providence, Rhode Island, according to public records, did not respond to a reporter’s phone call or a request for comment through a family member who was contacted by email.

Complex legal cases sometimes take a while, said lawyer Marsha V. Kazarosian, president of the Massachusetts Bar Association. "The length of time doesn't necessarily indicate there's nothing there. I just think they (investigators) are really being very careful," said Kazarosian, a family law expert.

DCF officials have concluded their investigation, but Layla’s day care providers and other mandated reporters continue to file reports of abuse as the child makes more disclosures, Cronin said.

The preschooler is doing very well living with her maternal grandmother, where she has been placed by DCF, Cronin said. But “she’s still diagnosed with PTSD. She’s still scared of certain places, certain things.”

Cronin said she and Braman, who resumed their relationship after Lucas’ death, are working to put their lives in order in the hope of getting Layla back.

They both work full time at a printing shop and have a new apartment decorated with photographs of Lucas and Layla and stuffed animals belonging to the children.

Braman said that after Lucas died, he went into substance abuse recovery programs at Gosnold on Cape Cod and the Miller House in Falmouth.

It’s a struggle to put his feelings into words, Braman said. “I can’t help but feel guilty. If I made the right decisions in the first place (Lucas and Layla) never would have been in that position.”

Layla remembers Lucas and “everything they used to do. She misses him so much,” Cronin said. She said the child’s grief comes in waves. “Then she’s happy again.”

— Follow Cynthia McCormick on Twitter: @Cmccormickcct.