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A baby is a remarkably resilient creature. They make some of the most incredible death-defying recoveries of all.
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This bring to mind a certain disorder of various species which is deliberately selected for with some commercial breeds. It's an inherited thing which causes extra muscle size, known generally as the myostatin mutation.
It afflicts everything from some humans to mice to cattle to dogs... Basically, theoretically, it could afflict every species that has muscles. In extreme expression, it is fatal in and of itself, but milder expressions are not fatal.
Among the many fatal issues it can cause, heart failure is one. Often these animals are extra strong, but some are so bound by their extra muscles they don't benefit in any way. You can see examples of the myostatin mutation at work in Belgian Blue cattle, and the multiple lethal or severely crippling accompanying defects of those genes are severe and hamper or even negate the commercial value of the breed, as the calves in purebred herds often need delivering via C-section, and a percentage are always dead or unable to live long past birth.
This is just a long shot though as for guessing what killed your chook. It's not the most likely issue.
Although you haven't seen any insects in the coop, it's always possible a poisoned/sprayed bug made its way there before she ate it. This commonly kills chickens in areas where insects are poisoned.
Also, I don't know if this one applies to you, but at some times of the year we have snakes go racing through our yard. They don't stay, they travel through very fast. Mostly they're coastal taipans (one of the most venomous land snakes) that go racing and jumping* through our yard.
The babies are about 10cm long and just like the adults, they will charge at anything they see that moves, and chase it, trying to bite it. Incredibly hyper-aggressive. They move very fast and hunt anything that moves regardless of its size, not to eat it, just to bite it.
(*Snakes can actually jump, it's a fallacy that they can't. I've got a lifetime's experience with hundreds of snakes of many species and have seen baby snakes and large adult snakes, pythons and venomous snakes alike, jump, many times. As in, clear the ground with their whole body, whether jumping up from the ground, or down or outwards from an elevated object. They can leap forwards and leap up in the air to switch head with tail from a completely outstretched starting position. No coiling required. This is not the same as lunging to bite).
Also, not too likely. What chemicals were you using in the sink? Are they biodegradeable or maybe something harsher? Even biodegradeable ones can kill, obviously, as animals are not usually able to cope with eating detergent. Also, one chicken in the whole flock is always guaranteed to die from something none of the others will. Some chickens are just silly about what they eat. Where the others decide not to touch something, that chicken will eat it.
Anyway, best wishes with unraveling this mystery, or at least not having it happen again anytime too soon!
