Toddler's sudden death investigated

The sudden death of a two-year-old boy in Oamaru has sparked a large police and forensic investigation, though the detective heading the investigation says it is currently being treated as simply "an unexplained death".

The toddler, named as Alex John Macrae, died on Friday, prompting police to call in a team of 20 police from Dunedin and Central Otago as well as ESR scientists.

Detective Senior Sergeant Colin Blackie, heading the inquiry, today said full results from an autopsy could take up to four weeks but he hoped to receive preliminary information today.

"I'm certainly not labelling it as anything other than an unexplained death at the moment," he said.

Mr Blackie said police had the house sealed off as part of their investigations, and the family was staying with extended family members. There were two other children in Alex's family.

He said Oamaru Hospital had reported the death to police as "it would be normal for them to do that".

Nothing should be read into the size of the staff working on the investigation, or the fact staff had been drawn from Dunedin and Central Otago.

"Oamaru's a small station. We have to bring in staff to make sure the job's done correctly, hopefully within a short timeframe."

Mr Blackie said the family, and extended family, were co-operating with police.

- NZPA