A nine-year-old apparently healthy boy from Utah, found dead in his bed on Saturday morning, “disappeared for several hours,” according to family members who still don’t understand why.
Logan Gagnier, 9, from West Jordan – about 15 miles from Salt Lake City – was not sick and showed no signs of injury when he went to bed Friday night after a fun day out with his family. He ate all his favorite junk food, played with his cousin and FaceTimed with his older brother Ryan, who was out of state on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
But when his family noticed that he was sleeping later than usual on Saturday, his mother Rebecca sent her eldest daughter to check on him. She found Logan unresponsive, and the family said that by the time they found him, he had “gone for hours”.
His father Garth said Logan had no known health issues and was an active child. The preliminary autopsy was inconclusive, and the family still did not know what had happened.
“He was healthy and active, which is confusing and frustrating,” Garth told KSL-TV. “He was just such a person in our family. He’s got so much left, I don’t know how we’re going to fill this hole.
Logan Gagne, 9, from West Jordan, Utah, was found dead in bed Saturday morning of an unknown cause.
His family noticed that Logan (center) was sleeping later than usual, so his parents Rebecca and Garth sent their eldest daughter upstairs to check on him, where she found him unresponsive.
“Logan had a lot to offer because he treated people as if they were people.”
His mother, Rebecca, posted a heartbreaking tribute to her son on her Facebook page on Sunday, the day after they learned he had died. “Your world can collapse in an instant… Our world will never be the same. Please pray that my husband and I will know how to breathe. Please pray for my son Ryan Gagnier [who was] on assignment [and] who was Logan’s best friend. Please pray for my 15 and 13 years and get through this tragedy.
Logan enjoyed playing sports, especially football, and was a big fan of the Brigham Young University (BYU) team. He was also on the Utah Junior Jazz basketball team and planned to attend a junior basketball game that weekend. The family said that they would go in his honor.
His uncle, J.D. Sheppard, also said that Logan would “play BYU’s top 100 YouTube games and watch them on repeat.”
“Our whole family loves BYU football, but Logan loved it on another level,” he said.
Sheppard also said that Logan had moved up in football this year and was determined to make the BYU team one day.
“He just had a ton of energy,” he told Fox 13. Wearing BYU would no longer be the same without Logan, he told the news outlet.
Logan (center) played with his cousin, ate his favorite junk food and FaceTimed his older brother Ryan (second from left), who was out of state the day before his death. His initial autopsy report proved inconclusive, and it could take months to receive a final report.
“God gave us really special moments with him,” he told Fox 13.
“This is my nephew who was tragically and suddenly taken away in his sleep. As we search for answers to why this tragedy happened, we remember his huge personality and how many, many times he worked so hard to make us all laugh,” his aunt, Camie Sheppard, wrote on her Facebook page.
The family set up a GoFundMe page to cover the cost of his funeral. He raised $33,000 of his $50,000 goal.
Logan’s official autopsy could take months.
Although autopsy reports have yet to come up with a definitive answer, sudden unexplained death in children (SUDS) accounts for less than one percent of deaths between the ages of 1 and 18. This number reaches almost 70 percent for infants under the age of one. .
His mother and aunt posted tributes on their Facebook pages. Rebecca said that her world “collapsed in an instant” and that her family’s world “will never be the same”. Logan’s aunt Camie wrote that she would remember all the times he “worked so hard to make us all laugh.”
Approximately 30 children between the ages of five and nine died from SUDS in 2020, the lowest category. Children between the ages of one and four and adolescents between 15 and 18 were among the highest rates, with 204 and 102 deaths in 2020, respectively.
The SUDS Foundation said it “most often” occurs in a “seemingly healthy child” who “falls asleep and never wakes up.”
A child death is considered SUDS if the coroner cannot determine the cause of death.