(ROCKDALE)  Rockdale Police investigated the death of a 17 month old child this week.  On Tuesday morning around 9:30 the Rockdale Police Department and AMR ambulance service responded to the call of a 17 month old child not breathing on Douthit Street. The child later identified as Madalynn Shanell Whitehouse was transported to Richards Memorial Emergency Room and was later pronounced dead. Upon further investigation by Police, Justice of the Peace Twila Harris, and CPS Investigator Daniel Estawood it was found that the child’s mother Mary Whitehouse had found her hanging from in between the bed rails that surrounded a bunk bed in the child’s room. Apparently the child slid down in between the rails while she was sleeping in the bed. The child was sent to the Dallas County Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy and the cause of death was ruled as mechanical asphyxia and the manner of death as an accident. Rockdale Police Officers involved in the investigation were Chief Thomas Harris, Lt. J. D. Newlin, and Officer Kirby Shoemake.