Massachusetts

Death of 13-Year-Old Girl Dropped Off at Hospital Remains a Mystery

The death of a 13-year-old Amesbury girl who was brought to a Massachusetts hospital earlier this week remains shrouded in mystery.

Chloe Ricard was left at Lawrence General Hospital at 4:47 p.m. on Monday, and police said she was already dead when she was dropped off.

Prior to being dropped off, she was hanging out with friends on Monday morning, according to her stepfather, Brian Dolan. Authorities are now investigating the cause of her death and are searching for the person or people who left her at the hospital. 

"The doctor told me, 'I tried everything I can. When she came in, she was lifeless, she had no pulse," Dolan said.

Questions are still swirling around the puzzling circumstances. Chloe had been a student at Amesbury Middle School, but left for Solstice Day School, an alternative school in Rowley, a few months back.

Amesbury schools released a statement saying Chloe "was kind to the younger students in the school and she showed great empathy for others. We will miss her smile, her creativity and her huge heart."

The girl's mother, Deborah Goldsmith-Dolan, told the Boston Globe that she had dropped her daughter off at a friend's house in Amesbury on Sunday afternoon. When she didn't hear from her by Monday morning, she texted her daughter's friends, who told her she was with a friend in Haverhill. She went to file a missing person's report around 4 p.m. Monday and got a text shortly thereafter from one of Chloe's friends saying that she had been taken to the hospital.

Her mother also told the Boston Herald Chloe had posted on Snapchat that she wanted to run away from home earlier on Monday.

It still isn't clear who dropped Chloe off, and Goldsmith-Dolan said she heard different accounts saying both that attempts were made to revive her daughter in the car and that her daughter was thrown from the vehicle.

Goldsmith-Dolan told the Herald that her daughter had been hanging out with a 16-year-old girl who "dumped her" at the Lawrence hospital.

"I'm angry, I want to shake somebody and say, 'Why would you do, why would you bring her to the hospital lifeless, dead?" Goldsmith-Dolan said Tuesday.

Dolan, meanwhile, told the Globe that he heard that a 47-year-old man dropped her off at the hospital. But investigators have not confirmed that information.

An autopsy was performed Tuesday by the chief medical examiner's office, but the district attorney's office said it could be some time before there is a ruling on the cause and manner of death.

No arrests have been made.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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