Woman staged baby drowning in dog’s water bowl to cover up real cause, Florida cops say
A Florida woman has been charged with manslaughter after a baby in her care drowned while pinned under a booster seat in the bathtub, according to the Collier County Sheriff’s Office.
It happened Saturday, June 17, at a home east of Naples, and the woman is accused of staging a different scenario involving a dog bowl to hide the fact the child was left unattended, officials said in a news release.
Investigators say 29-year-old Nicole Marie Laber strapped the baby to a booster seat and left the child sitting alone in the bathtub before calling 911 around 7:40 a.m.
“The infant drowned after the booster seat tipped over and trapped the child under a few inches of water,” the sheriff’s office said in a news release. “The child was later pronounced dead at a hospital.”
The baby was an 8-month-old girl and the suspect is her mother, according to station WBBH-TV.
Laber called the sheriff’s office to report the drowning that morning, officials said, but “staged the child’s death to make it appear as if it were an accident.”
“Laber initially told deputies she briefly left the infant inside the house unattended while she went to retrieve her dog and another young child. ... When she returned she found the infant slumped over on the floor, face-down, in the dog’s water bowl,” the sheriff’s office said.
“Further investigation by deputies revealed Laber left the infant unattended in a bathtub while strapped to a booster seat.”
Laber was arrested June 23 and faces a charge of aggravated manslaughter of a child, officials said.
“This is an absolute tragedy,” said Collier County Sheriff Kevin Rambosk said in the news release. “But thanks to the dedication and skill of our detectives we now know what actually happened to this innocent baby and justice can be carried out.”
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