Slain Baby Chance Walsh's Mom Dies in Apparent Suicide After Agreeing to Testify at Dad's Murder Trial

Kristen Bury, the mother of Chance Walsh, was found dead in a Florida jail of an apparent suicide Saturday, months after accepting a plea in her infant son's death, authorities said.

Sarasota County jail staffers found Bury, 33, unresponsive in her cell shortly before 1 a.m. on Saturday morning, according to a statement from the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office.

Efforts to revive Bury failed, and she was pronounced dead not long after arriving at a local hospital for treatment, authorities said.

"The initial investigation indicates a suicide," reads a statement from investigators. "The Medical Examiner's Office is also investigating the death."



In January, Bury pleaded no contest in the September 2015 killing of the 9-week-old Chance and was sentenced to 25 years in prison on an aggravated manslaughter charge.

Under the deal, she agreed to provide testimony during Walsh's upcoming trial. According to the Orlando Sentinel, Bury had returned to the Sarasota County jail for a court appearance in an unrelated case.

Chance's remains were found in a shallow grave in October, after Bury led investigators to the wooded area where she said she and the boy's father, Joseph Walsh, had buried him weeks before.

Authorities allege Chance was beaten to death by Walsh on Sept. 17, 2015. The infant was left in his crib for several days before his parents allegedly buried him.

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Investigators started searching for Chance after his maternal grandmother contacted police in early October. She told detectives she hadn't seen the child since early September.

Days before the police were notified that Chance was missing, Walsh and Bury hit the road, fleeing Florida and intent on starting a new life together, authorities have said. Police caught up to them in South Carolina, where their car was involved in a car crash.

Walsh has been indicted on first-degree murder and his trial is scheduled for June 2017.

This is not the first time a child of Bury and Walsh's has died: They lost another son, Duane, in 2014. Duane was just 2 weeks old when he allegedly died of a kidney infection that resulted from a botched circumcision, a family friend told PEOPLE last year.

According to a probable cause affidavit obtained by PEOPLE, Bury allegedly told her stepmother that she "despised" Chance whenever she would look at him because he was not Duane and said it was "better that he was not around because she would have hurt him."