Meghan Roach lifted her 18-month-old into his crib, and kissed him good night. He looked at his mother, smiling before he rested on his belly.
“That was it. He made no noises all night,” Roach recalled. “There was no inclination that anything was wrong.”
The following morning, May 14, 2024, she entered Beckham’s room, expecting him to pop up briskly for the new day. When he didn’t move, she touched him.
He was stiff and cold. She screamed and started CPR.
Paramedics later declared Beckham dead.
Genetic testing for answers
The Charleston County Coroner’s Office did a state-mandated child death review, but after two months of study and an investigation, it did not find the cause of Beckham’s death, Charleston County Coroner Bobbi Jo O’Neal said.
With the lingering unknowns, Beckham’s death qualified for a month-long advanced medical review that involved a team of experts who studied his medical history and other issues that might have been missed during the first review, O’Neal said.
So far, the coroner’s office has conducted about four advanced medical reviews into childhood deaths funded by a $1 million five-year grant from the Center for Disease Control (CDC).
The coroner’s office is in the second year of the grant-funded program, the only one in South Carolina and one of 32 nationwide, she said.
‘Sudden unexplained death in childhood’
The coroner’s office classified Beckham’s death as sudden unexplained death in childhood (SUDC). SUDC is a classification given to the unexplained deaths of children one year old and older.
In 2021, 450 children between the ages of one to 18 years old nationwide died suddenly without a cause of death, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most of the deaths occurred among toddlers, aged 1 to 4 years.
“We don’t have answers to what caused these deaths, but the information gleaned from these advanced studies will help the public health system in preventing the deaths of children nationwide,” she said.
Even though only a few childhood deaths in Charleston County received the SUDC classification annually, the local information will help update CDC health public policy for the country, O’Neal said.
The CDC grant also pays for a genetic study. Beckham’s parents took the genetic tests.
A detailed autopsy ruled out cerebral aneurysm as a cause of Beckham’s death, Roach said. The genetic tests also ruled out epilepsy and other rare genetic anomalies that a standard autopsy would not detect, she added.
“Nobody can explain what happened that night” to Beckham, an energetic child who gave high-five greetings to strangers with a “hi” that he pronounced as “eye,” she said.
Beckham’s father, Tony Roach, said, “We’ve done everything to get an answer, and there is none.”
Grant-funded death investigations
The CDC grant pays the salaries of two coroner’s office employees — Alison Garbarini and Kaaliyah Harris — who work to improve how infant and childhood deaths are investigated and reported to the National Center for Fatality Review and Prevent (CFRP).
The Charleston County Coroner’s Office, O’Neal said, is partnering with coroners in Georgetown, Berkeley, Dorchester, Beaufort and Colleton counties to help those agencies improve the reporting of childhood deaths to the national data base.
Investigating the death of a child is the hardest task for coroners across the country, said O’Neal, author of the 2007 book Investigating Infant Deaths.
A child’s death plucks the emotions because it is an unexpected loss, she said. Because children don’t have lengthy social or medical histories that could provide clues to their deaths, investigators rely on their parents or caregivers for information, the coroner explained.
The cause of a child’s death is often easily recognized, O’Neal said.
The risk factors for a childhood death depends on the child’s age. A sleeping child younger than 2 years old is susceptible to being suffocated by a pillow or the body part of an adult in bed with them, she said. Accidents and drowning tend to claim the lives of older children. Newly licensed teenage drivers run the risk of a fatal car crash, O’Neal said.
Community of support
After Beckham’s so-far unexplained death, the coroner’s office connected his parents with the Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood Foundation. Through the foundation, the couple has met other families who have gone through similar ordeals.
“This foundation saved me … through this time,” Meghan Roach said. The foundation offers grief counseling, raises SUDC awareness and supports research to find risk factors. March is SUDC awareness month.
Although Meghan Roach is a pediatric ultrasound technician, she had never heard of SUDC.
She would like to help raise SUDC awareness by organizing a beach walk, maybe in November around the anniversary of Beckham’s birth on Nov. 9. He loved being in water, she added.
The Roaches have learned they must celebrate each happy occasion with their son, 6-year-old Bennett, knowing that death robbed Beckham of the experience of a sports team victory and a school graduation.
Lingering guilt
Some days, Meghan Roach says she feels an emotional gut punch as she relives the events before Beckham glanced over his shoulder to give his father a boyish grin while enjoying his bath.
“I think about that night,” she said. “I was looking at the monitor, and he appeared to be sleeping. It was normal for him to sleep through the night. I don’t think I will ever get over the guilt,” she said.
After Beckham and Bennett were born, the Charleston couple was happy to have their sons. “Our family felt complete when [Beckham] came to the world,” their mother said. Now there is the fear of having another child, she admitted.
Beckham’s middle name was Ace. After he was born, his card-playing maternal grandparents jokingly said they have their ace, she said.
Now, Bennett is afraid to be alone, his mother said. Every night he sleeps with his mother or father. Meghan said she wakes during the night to check Bennett’s breathing.
Tony Roach said he is convinced Beckham had a purpose. “He changed me as a person,” said Roach, who owns a construction company. “My career path and outlook on life has changed. I got reunited with family I haven’t seen in 38 years. I know them now because of his passing.”
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