Investigation underway after New Jersey mother says adult son with autism died at day program
A New Jersey mother claims her son died at a day program for developmentally disabled adults because of negligence.
Her attorney says the family intends to file a lawsuit.
"He was my world"
Kimberlee McCafferty describes her 22-year-old son, Justin, as profoundly autistic and nonverbal, and says he attended the Fort Monmouth Day Program in Oceanport.
On April 15, she says Justin was rushed from the facility to a local hospital, where he died.
McCafferty says the day of the tragedy, the program told her to go to the hospital, where she got the terrible news, and it was police who shared some details.
"He died from a fall," McCafferty said. "We answered a few more questions, and then I went home and told my husband, who has Alzheimer's, that his son had died."
"I don't know how to live in a world where my son doesn't exist in it because he was my world," McCafferty said.
She says her son was kind and smart, and loved horseback riding.
"My last really good memory of Justin is climbing into bed with him the night before [he died], which I did every night," she said, "and I held his hand and I sang the song I made up for him when he was 2 months old."
Attorney believes Justin was left unattended
McCafferty's attorney, Daryl Zaslow, said they've gotten few answers from the facility, but he believes Justin was left unattended for an extended period of time.
"This innocent young man fell to his death from either the roof or a third-story window," he said.
"They were supposed to have line of sight of my son, and he was supposed to be attended [to] at every moment," McCafferty said, "and now he is dead."
Zaslow provided CBS News New York with a picture of the parking lot, where he says he believes Justin was discovered by a passerby.
"It was a good Samaritan that came over and started to resuscitate Justin as he was sitting there alone and in pain after having fallen that far," he said.
CBS News New York reached out to the Fort Monmouth Day Program in Oceanport by phone and email but has not heard back.
The Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office told CBS News New York in a statement, "Our Office can confirm that we, along with members of the Oceanport Police Department, are investigating the death of an adult male discovered in the proximity of the Fort Monmouth Day Program which occurred on Wednesday morning, April 15. The investigation is active and ongoing at this time."
