Autopsy indicates Clovis girl did not suffocate

Preliminary autopsy findings show a 2-year-old Clovis girl did not suffocate as police initially thought.

Aspen Reiller died Sunday after her parents reported they woke around 10 a.m. and found her unconscious and not breathing.

“There were no indications of suffocation or any means of a physical foul play to have caused her death,” said Clovis police Capt. Patrick Whitney, classifying the cause of death as undetermined. “There’s lots of different things that could have caused her death (but) we would know from the initial autopsy if there was something obvious.”

Medical investigators were not able to reach a determination as to what caused the child’s death, Whitney said Tuesday, and are awaiting the results of toxicology and pathological tests. Those tests can look for toxins the child may have ingested or undiagnosed health conditions that could have led to the death, Whitney said.

“Those results may take months and does not guarantee a cause of death determination,” Whitney said. “Our hearts and prayers go out to the parents and family for their loss of this little girl.”

Whitney said the child’s family lives in the area, but was spending the night with a family that resides at 4221 Lew Wallace.

When officers arrived on scene, the child’s father, 24-year-old Justin Reiller, was kneeling over his daughter on the floor, telling her to breath, according to a police report released Tuesday.

An officer noted he began chest compressions on the child, instructing her father to administer breaths to her, the report said, until medical responders arrived and transported the child to the hospital.