SAN DIEGO -- A 3-month-old boy who passed away while in foster care died of natural causes, a medical examiner determined.
Child Protective Services took the baby boy, Zane Wolfgang Thomas, from his mother, Kimberly, shortly after he was born on June 8. Kimberly Thomas was struggling with a drug addiction.
At the time of the boy's death, he was in foster care for a few days a week and his grandmother, Maria Thomas, cared for him the rest of the time. Maria was eventually granted full custody, which was scheduled to start in October.
But on Sept. 8, the boy died at a foster home in Scripps Ranch.
Police initially believed Zane had died from a medical condition. Autopsy results released this week found the child died a natural death associated with follicular bronchiolitis. There were other contributing health factors as well, according to the report.
In mid-September, the boy's family told 10News they felt Child Protective Services had unfairly taken the baby from family members and that it took the agency 24 hours to let family members know he had died.
"They just dropped the ball," Kimberly Thomas, the boy's mother, said at the time. "I feel helpless. No answers. I feel ignored. I just don't think any human being should be treated like this."
A Child Protective Services spokesperson told 10News at the time they would not talk about this specific case, but said their procedure is to always to keep the child with the biological family first.
