Mother found pushing dead 3-year-old in swing at La Plata park

A woman was found pushing her young son's dead body on a swing at Wills Memorial Park in La Plata, authorities say.

Neighbors say she had been there for hours and possibly all night.

Neighbors became very concerned when they noticed the mother pushing her 3-year-old on the swing for an unusually long time, so they called police. But they never expected what happened next.

"When the police got there, they noticed the baby was dead in the swing," said one neighbor who did not want to be identified. "He was not moving, which is tragic."

"I don't want to go over there anymore because I saw him on the ground," said Natasha Key, another neighbor who saw first responders trying to give the child CPR.

"It's pretty clear the child had been dead for several hours prior to the officers arriving," said Diane Richardson, spokesperson for the Charles County Sheriff's Office.

Despite the fact that deputies could almost immediately tell the little boy's body was lifeless, they tried to revive him.

The incident is what everyone in the small town of La Plata is talking is about, especially because many saw the young woman and the boy late at night Thursday and was still there in the morning on Friday.

"He couldn't see his face because she had her stomach in front of him," said Key, referring to her son who is a middle school student.

Key's child saw the mother and son at the park Thursday night.

"He said that he was crying, so he was alive, and she looked up and looked at him and he looked at her and he put her head down," Key said.

Investigators are still working to piece together what happened. The mother was taken to the hospital for a medical evaluation.

The toddler was taken to the medical examiner's office in Baltimore for an autopsy to figure out how he died because there were no obvious signs of trauma.

"It's really heartbreaking," said Key.

The swing that the little boy was in was removed from the playground.

Investigators are asking for people who saw the mother and son to call the Charles County Sheriff's Office.