Four month old baby Harper Lee Tomkins dies from SIDS

A young couple has been left grief-stricken after their baby passed away in her sleep

Ebony Graveur and ebony.graveur@news.com.au

less than 2 min read

April 8, 2021 - 4:00PM

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A YOUNG family has been left devastated following the death of four-month-old baby Harper Lee Tomkins, who died in her sleep recently.

Happy and healthy only hours earlier, the infant had been giggling and laughing on video, her heartbroken grandmother said.

Plainland grandmother Kelly Edwards told the Queensland Times her daughter Brooke sent a video of baby Harper on the night of the tragedy.

"It was the first time she captured Harper laughing and giggling," Kelly said.

"It was only three hours prior."

On March 27, about 4am, Brooke checked Harper Lee's room to discover her daughter had died.

Baby Harper Lee was only four months old when she was lost to SIDS.

Kelly said the cause of death was still unknown but the process of elimination pointed to SIDS, or sudden infant death syndrome.

"What they look for these days is injury - they ruled that out, if there was any sign of disease, they would have seen it," Kelly said.

"For a SIDS ruling, they rule everything else out. When they can't find any answer, that's when they say SIDS."

Kelly remembers worrying about SIDS when her own children were young.

"You don't hear about it anymore but it needs to be more talked about because there are measures you can take," she said.

Since the tragedy, parents Jye and Brooke have been unable to return to their home. They are still looking for a new place to live.

"We went back there to collect some of their things and my girl Brooke just lay on the bed where Harper would lay and it wasn't good," Kelly said.

"We had to get her out and she doesn't want to go back."

Brooke with baby Harper Lee.

While they continue to pay rent on their former home, the pair has been staying with friends.

"All they want to do is go home - at a time like this, home is your safe place to get away from everything," Kelly said.

A GoFundMe was launched to help provide financial relief to the couple following the tragedy.

To support the fund, click here.

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