Autopsy on Grand Haven Area Girl Confirms Accidental Death Conclusion

GRAND RAPIDS, MI (WHTC) – An autopsy done on Mikayla Rae VanderLaan has confirmed initial Sheriff’s detectives’ findings that showed the four-year-old Grand Haven area girl was the victim of an accidental suffocation. The child was playing alone in her bedroom at a unit in a mobile home park off of Mercury Drive near 144th Avenue last Sunday night when she stepped on a toy to reach a high item and got entangled by the cloth belt of a robe hanging on a closet door.  The autopsy was conducted by Ottawa County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. David Start at Spectrum-Blodgett Hospital. Her mother and stepfather have been cooperative in the investigation, which remains open, and anyone with any further information on the matter is asked to contact Silent Observer.