Baby drowns in care of children at Olney foster home

Police are investigating the drowning yesterday of a 10-month-old boy in a foster home in Olney.

The infant drowned in a bathtub after the foster mother left him in the care of her two pre-teen daughters, police said they were told.

"The siblings were supposed to be giving him a bath and one of them left, after turning the water on, and then the other one got distracted as the water continued to rise," said Sgt. Francis Erickson of the Special Victims Unit.

Medics were called to the house in the 400 block of West Ashdale Street at 3:40 p.m. but could not revive the baby. The baby, whose name was not released, was pronounced dead at Albert Einstein Medical Center, Erickson said.

One of the girls, age 12, left the room to get her hair done, Erickson said. The other, 11, found the motionless infant. The child had been placed in the home through the city Department of Human Services, according to Erickson.

- By Jan Hefler