Against the backdrop of a criminal case, the family’s complaint focuses on the time Maddy Mitchell was allegedly left under a blanket before workers realized she was not breathing.
LENOIR, N.C. — A wrongful death lawsuit filed by the parents of 16-month-old Madolyn Amara “Maddy” Mitchell says a former daycare employee restrained the child during nap time and then failed to check on her for hours before the toddler was discovered unresponsive at a Lenoir center.
What gives the new filing force is not only the allegation of physical restraint, but the long period of inattention it describes. The complaint says Alexandra Coffey left Maddy on the floor under a blanket and did not check on her again for about three hours. That account matters because the case has already produced a manslaughter charge, a state-ordered daycare shutdown and a medical ruling, described in the lawsuit, that classified the death as a homicide.
The public timeline begins with Maddy’s first day at Creative Beginnings on May 19, 2025. Court records cited by local television stations say the child was put down for a nap at 11:45 a.m. According to the new lawsuit, Maddy got up from her mat and Coffey forced her back down face first. The complaint says Coffey covered the girl’s head with a blanket, trapped her legs and pressed her upper body over the toddler’s upper torso and neck. Earlier coverage from WSOC said the child was found unresponsive at 2:30 p.m., creating a time span that now sits at the center of both public concern and the family’s civil case.
That gap between 11:45 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. runs through nearly every known record. The lawsuit says Maddy kicked one leg for several minutes before she stopped moving. It then says Coffey got up, went back to work and left the child under the blanket, motionless. A 911 call later released to local media captured the panic after workers realized the child was not breathing. The caller told a dispatcher that a child was “turning blue” and said she had thought the child was sleeping. Seven minutes into that call, according to local reporting, the caller disclosed that Maddy’s mother had not yet been contacted. Those details do not prove every allegation in the complaint, but they sharpen the timeline the family wants a jury to examine.
The lawsuit also changes what the public knows about the medical side of the case. Earlier reporting after Coffey’s arrest said authorities were still awaiting a full autopsy. The new complaint says the North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled Maddy’s death a homicide caused by smothering from compression asphyxia. Spectrum News said it could not independently confirm the autopsy because access to such records is now restricted under North Carolina law while a case is incomplete. That leaves the medical conclusion in the public record mainly through the parents’ pleading and follow-up news reports. Even so, the allegation gives the civil action a much harder edge than the early reports that described only a toddler who did not wake from a nap.
The criminal file remains narrower in what it has publicly disclosed. Coffey, identified in previous reports as a former employee of Creative Beginnings, was arrested in May 2025 and charged with involuntary manslaughter. Police have not publicly laid out in detail what evidence drove that charge, and court documents cited last spring did not explain exactly what led investigators to accuse her. Officers did seize a video recorder, a blanket and a mattress cover. Those items may matter later if the case reaches trial, because they suggest prosecutors were looking closely at what happened in the room, what was used during nap time and whether any recording captured the event or its aftermath.
The center itself was pushed out of operation within days. The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services suspended the license of the daycare’s operator on May 21, 2025, saying emergency action was needed to protect public health, safety or welfare. The order closed Creative Beginnings at the end of that business day. Later reporting said there was no longer a pending appeal. Separate state inspection records cited by WRAL said not all staff had been properly certified in first aid and CPR during an August 2024 inspection. Officials have not said that earlier issue caused Maddy’s death, but it became part of the broader picture around the center after the child died.
The family’s lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages and asks for a jury trial in Caldwell County. Angel Dawn Blankenship and Jovon Jerell Mitchell, the adults identified in the complaint as having legal responsibility for Maddy, accuse Coffey of gross negligence and say she breached basic duties of supervision and care. Law and Crime reported that Coffey’s legal team had not yet responded to the filing. The manslaughter case was still pending in mid-March 2026, and no next criminal court appearance had been publicly scheduled. That means the civil case may become the main source of new factual detail unless prosecutors or police release more through open court proceedings.
Coffey’s case remains fixed on one question: what happened during the hours when a child was supposed to be sleeping under adult supervision. The next public turn is likely to come from a court response to the wrongful death complaint or from the scheduling of Coffey’s pending criminal case.
Author note: Last updated April 8, 2026.