Carroll County deputies are investigating the death of a 19-months old child whose lifeless body was reportedly discovered by a family member inside a sewage pipe outside the grandparents’ home in the Stripling Chapel Road area early Thursday evening.

Carroll County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Ashley Hulsey said the initial investigation suggests the incident was simply a terrible accident.

“The grandparents had been watching the toddler – and there were other children in the home at that time,” Hulsey told WLBB Radio. “Occupants in the home said they had seen the baby a very short time before the mother had returned to the home. The mother asked where the child was. They could not find the toddler in the home.”

The family soon learned that the baby had somehow made it outside.

“And it had been raining significantly Thursday afternoon,” Hulsey said. “This all happened in a really short window of time— from the time they discovered the child was missing and then was found outside.”

Carroll County Coroner Keith Hancock told WLBB Radio that the cause and manor of death has not yet been determined. An autopsy will be conducted by the GBI Medical Examiner.