Mother in Custody After Newborn Found Dead in Bathtub

Justin Morgan
By Justin Morgan
August 27, 2019US News
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Mother in Custody After Newborn Found Dead in Bathtub
Photo of police tape. (David von Diemar/Unsplash)

A Detroit mother was taken into custody Monday after her newborn child was found dead in a bathtub.

According to police, the mother claims she woke up around 6 a.m. to find the baby unresponsive in the tub, reported FOX2 Detroit.

The mother said she then tried resuscitating the 18-day-old infant, but was unsuccessful.

The incident is reported to have occurred at an apartment in Detroit, Michigan.

Details regarding cause of death have yet to be released to the public. The bathtub reportedly had water in it, how much water, and whether or not the baby drowned, has not been confirmed by police.

According to CBSLocal, Police Chief James Craig told reporters, it’s a “tragic situation.” He also mentioned it’s too early to “go into what happened” or “why it happened.”

Neighbors say a young couple had just recently moved into the apartment.

Tena Williams—a neighboring resident—told reporters, “A beautiful baby girl, beautiful. I just saw the baby two days ago, me and her. (She seemed) very healthy. She grabbed my fingers; she had a strong grip. Very healthy.”

Brooklyn Mother Convicted of Drowning 2-Year-Old Daughter

Another incident involving a child drowning while at home happened when a 2-year-old girl named Melody Zheng, was found unconscious and unresponsive by police officers at an apartment in Brooklyn.

The police say her 30-year-old father, whose name was not released, was trying to revive her when authorities arrived.

Lin Li.
Lin Li, 27, was convicted of first-degree manslaughter on June 4, 2019. (Brooklyn District Attorney)

Officials said they started looking into whether the toddler had been abused after finding bruises on her older brother’s neck.

The child’s mother, Lin Li, 27, allegedly took the girl into a bathroom to punish her by submerging her head in a storage container filled with water and holding her under until she stopped struggling.

The toddler was taken to Maimonides Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.

The Medical Examiner determined that Melody had multiple bruises and contusions that were consistent with her being held underwater and drowned.

Li was later found guilty and faces up to 25 years in prison for forcing the toddler’s head underwater as punishment, authorities said in a statement.

Las Vegas Mother Charged with Drowning Daughter in Bathtub

A third incident involved a Las Vegas mother who was charged with murdering her 2-year-old daughter by drowning her in the bathtub, according to police.

Linette Boedicker, 44, phoned 911 herself at around 3 p.m. on May 11 to say that her daughter had drowned in the bathtub, according to a statement (pdf) from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

Linette Boedicker, also known as Linette Warrichaiet.
Linette Boedicker, also known as Linette Warrichaiet, who was arrested in Las Vegas, Nevada, on May 11, 2019. (LVMPD)

“Arriving officers located an unresponsive child floating in a bathtub,” said the statement. “The officers took the child out of the bathtub and started to perform CPR. Medical personnel transported the child to UMC trauma where she was pronounced deceased. ”

Investigators determined that the girl had been put in the bathtub by her mother, according to the police statement.

Boedicker, who also goes by the surname of Warrichaiet, has been charged with open murder, according to jail records.

GQ Pan and Simon Veazey contributed to this report.

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