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An Observer investigative series on SIDS deaths in the state has won a Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism.
The six-part series, called "Cradle of Secrets" and published in 2010, was honored Tuesday night at the National Press Club in Washington.
The series revealed that N.C. authorities' bias toward declaring infant deaths as SIDS has hidden the truth behind why many babies die across the state.
Four Observer reporters - Karen Garloch, Fred Clasen-Kelly, Franco Ordoñez, and Lisa Hammersly - examined over 550 autopsies in cases involving babies from 2004 to 2008. They found that almost 70 percent of autopsies labeled as SIDS also described circumstances that suggested the babies died of reasons other than SIDS. Many probably died in accidents, including suffocation while sleeping with adults, or under other suspicious circumstances.
After the series, the state's Child Fatality Task force began requiring child death investigative training for all new law enforcement officers. And a new chief state medical examiner promised to follow national standards in classifying suspicious infant deaths.
Another Carolinas journalist was also honored. Isaac Bailey, a columnist at the (Myrtle Beach) Sun News and a graduate of Davidson College, won for a six-part series that explored flaws in the interstate child protection laws through the eyes of an Horry County father.
The Casey competition is sponsored by the Journalism Center on Children & Families at the University of Maryland. More than 500 journalists entered this year's contest.
