NEWPORT, N.H. (AP) — Police in New Hampshire are investigating the death of a 2 ½-year-old girl found outside of a house in bitterly cold weather.

Newport Police Chief Jim Burroughs tells the Valley News the girl may have left the house overnight Monday and then couldn't get back in. He said the death is not suspicious and "appears to be a bad accident."

The Valley News reports a neighbor said he woke up around 4 a.m. Monday to the sound of a child crying but couldn't see anything. He said he and his girlfriend found the girl at about 7 a.m. at the bottom of a set of stairs off a screened-in porch in a back apartment of the house.

Temperatures were below zero degrees Fahrenheit (minus 18 Celsius) overnight.

(Information from: Lebanon Valley News, http://www.vnews.com)

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