A toddler found dead early Monday outside her New Hampshire home in bitterly cold weather apparently left her house just before dawn but couldn't get back inside.
Newport Police said the death of the 2 ½-year-old, whom the family only identified as Sofia Van Schoick, is not suspicious and 'appears to be a bad accident'.
The girl's grandfather, Lindsay Van Schoick, said through text message that a neighbor had found the girl.
He said the family is still trying to understand what happened.
'It's rough,' he said. 'It was a terrible accident, a terrible accident. She (his daughter) is doing horrible. She is doing terrible. She just lost one of her children.'
Van Schoick, who was at the Newport home but wouldn't answer the door, said the family had just moved into the apartment and his granddaughter may not have known her way around.
He also said the front door leading outside was easy to open and the family had not had time to put bolt locks on the entrance.
'I don't think she made it up the stairs. They found her at the bottom of the stairs,' he said. 'There are things we will never know. We'll never know what happened.'
Their neighbor, Shane Rowe and his girlfriend heard cries around 4am Monday but didn't see anything.
They went back to bed and later found the girl at the bottom of the stairs leading to the child's apartment.