MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) — As Savannah Griffin sat surrounded by her loved ones and blue candles on Tuesday afternoon, her main focus was on a large picture frame next to her, featuring her young son, Gabriel.

"He liked to laugh; he smiled all the time. He was just a happy baby, kicking his feet," Griffin said, recalling that her 5-month-old had just begun teething. "He was up; he was aware. He was perfect."

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Last Thursday, Gabriel was at a licensed at-home daycare on the city's north side when Griffin received an alarming text from the facility's owner, who she said is her close cousin and also the only employee.

"Her exact words were, 'My baby is not breathing. I need to get there,'" Griffin said.

But as she left work to rush over, Griffin said she knew it was too late.

"He was here for a minute, and he was gone, and he was taken away from me," Griffin said. "I'm not OK. None of us are OK."

Gabriel had only been at daycare for eight days.

"She can't tell me how long he was sleeping for. I've asked her that. She don't know," Griffin said. "I am suspecting it was negligence."

According to state records, the daycare closed the day after Gabriel had passed.

"He was healthy, he had no health conditions, no medication, none of that," Griffin said. "His initial autopsy, he had no medical conditions that would've caused death."

Griffin said she's tried to get answers from the daycare's owner but hasn't received the information she's requested.

"She can't tell me how long he was sleeping for. I've asked her that. She don't know," Griffin said. "There's no empathy, there's not a full story."

While the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner hasn't yet disclosed Gabriel's official cause of death, Griffin said a report she obtained from the Milwaukee Police Department said her son had dried blood around his nose and that the report listed "unwitnessed cardiac arrest."

"And to get to a cardiac arrest, you have to go through respiratory failure first, meaning he was suffocating and he couldn't breathe and he choked," Griffin said. "It's deep, and we want answers."

CBS 58 reached out to the medical examiner's office to see if it could confirm cardiac arrest but didn't receive a response before deadline.

We also reached out to the daycare for comment but, so far, have not heard back.

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"Not only did he matter to me, he mattered to my family. He was supposed to matter to her, and knowing that everybody is coming together in the community to get my baby justice means a lot to me," Griffin said.

The family has created a GoFundMe to help with funeral expenses for Gabriel.