Benton City woman charged in baby's tub death
KENNEWICK, Wash. (AP) - A Benton City woman accused of criminal negligence in leaving two young children unsupervised in a bathtub has been charged with second-degree manslaughter in the death of her year-old daughter.
The Tri-City Herald reports (http://is.gd/zmMxyk) that 39-year-old Wendi Finkbeiner-Setzer has been summoned to appear in Superior Court on Jan. 17.
Benton County sheriff's deputies say little Piper Finkbeiner was found face down and not breathing on Nov. 5 in the bathtub of her home.
She was flown to a Seattle hospital, where doctors determined she was brain dead. Court documents say she was taken off life support Nov. 12.
According to court papers, the mother says she left Piper and her 2-year-old sister alone for not more than five minutes in about 10-12 inches of water while she did some work on a computer.
Deputies say water had overflowed from the tub.
The Tri-City Herald reports (http://is.gd/zmMxyk) that 39-year-old Wendi Finkbeiner-Setzer has been summoned to appear in Superior Court on Jan. 17.
Benton County sheriff's deputies say little Piper Finkbeiner was found face down and not breathing on Nov. 5 in the bathtub of her home.
She was flown to a Seattle hospital, where doctors determined she was brain dead. Court documents say she was taken off life support Nov. 12.
According to court papers, the mother says she left Piper and her 2-year-old sister alone for not more than five minutes in about 10-12 inches of water while she did some work on a computer.
Deputies say water had overflowed from the tub.
The mother has been punished enough....she will live her whole life feeling guilty....
most parents are not perfect and do the best they can. we ALL have made a parenting mistake at some time. . and luckily our children did not suffer. count the times . . .not using the car seat for a 2 block trip. . .not plugging up ALL electrical outlets. . .not having a gate at ALL stairs and USING it ALL the time. . .not leaving a hot cup of coffee on the coffee table. . . or an alcoholic beverage . . .the list goes on and on. the perfect one of you can throw the first stone. my heart grieves for the whole family.
@jennieb I made my share too and I agree with you completely.
How horrible, but yet common. Many people have left their kids in the tub to go and answer the door, phone, check on dinner, so on and so forth. This mother got a little to comfortable with leaving her kids in the tub to be away for such a long period of time. She is now paying the ultimate price. I hope this stops allot of people from doing this even for a second. You may be grabbing the phone but your child could be climbing out of the tub and really hurt themselves.Â
 @Just my say I fell terrible for this family too, but she didn't just run to grab the phone. She made a conscious decision to go work on the computer while her babies were in the bathtub. We all know how dangerous that is. It's the same as if she had left them in the front yard and gone in the house to do some work. This was not an accident, it was negligent parenting.
What kind of mother would do such a thing?!! I don't know any parent that would leave a kid under about 5 alone in the tub (and age 5 might be questionable). I hope she drowns in jail!
@Commenter87643Â This was a very very serious accident...You must be the perfect mom ??
That poor woman and her family will grieve the rest of their lives...
You are a mean and vindictive woman..
 @clem77 For one, I've never claimed to be a woman. For two, she's been accused of criminal negligence and "has been charged with second-degree manslaughter", so the investigators don't believe it's an accident either.
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To those claiming that this is just an accident, PLEASE get a basic physics course and pay special attention to the section on water, and a physiology course about how the human body works.
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Even if a baby can sit perfectly well on dry floor, it CANNOT remain sitting in water deeper than a few inches. Babies typically have a fair amount of body fat and fat floats. (The article says the woman left the water runing, and water was overflowing from the tub.) Once the water level is halfway up on the sitting baby, baby will begin to float. Or, if the baby is standing, deeper water will also cause it to begin to float and it will lose its footing. In both cases the baby will tip over. Very often, drowning victims make very little noise and a baby might not even thrash noticeably because when tipped over in the water, they're often just in wonder at what's happened and also stunned. Then they gasp for air but the face is under water and it's too late and in this case there was NO ONE there to rescue this baby.
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I feel very sorry for the other family members of this baby, but I do not feel sorry for the mother a bit.
@Commenter87643 Your pathetic!!
@Commenter87643 Really? Age 5? My daughter is getting ready to turn 4 and she doesn't like people in the bathroom with her at all while she is in the bath. We leave the door open so we can hear her, and anytime she goes quiet longer than a minute we call in to her.
 @Commenter87643 Aren't you the perfect Mom.  Lets not worry about other's mistakes this was an accident, hoping her death....Repulsive!  She morns, you just are a self riotous moron
 @SeattleReality Good LORD I hope you have no kids!
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The death of the baby was no accident. If you leave young children alone in a bathtub for any length of time, you can -expect- that they will drown, it's physics and physiology.
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Seriously, if you have kids, take some parenting classes ASAP!
I can't imagine that someone who would do something this stupid, would really suffer any horrible remorseful feelings except for one. The fact that she may serve jail time. Poor little angel.
 @DTMD Wow, people do stupid stuff all the time but I would bet that she is much more remorseful about loosing her child.  Judge not let the ye be judged yourself!  How judgmental of you to assume you know what your talking about!  I agree poor angel, so how about the other angel who will loose her Mom to jail?
 @SeattleReality  @DTMD The other angel has no business being with a 39 year old mom that lacks common sense enough to leave a 1 and 2 year old unattended in a bathtub and killed a sibling.
another awesome mom in the news.