Following the drowning of her toddler son in the bathtub, a 21-year-old Iowa mother was charged with child endangerment resulting in death.
After her baby, who was 20 months old, drowned, Kayla Bevar was taken into custody on December 4.
At approximately 7 p.m. on the evening of October 31, emergency personnel responded to a call at Bevar’s residence, according to a statement on the West Des Moines Police Department website.
Bevar called after discovering her baby floating in the sea when she woke up, according to court filings. He was declared dead after being brought to the hospital.
On the night of the drowning, Bevar told police she had started the boy’s bath at 6:30 p.m. and left the room when the drain was clogged and the tub was full of water, according to court documents.
When her son was in the tub before she went to sleep, she allegedly checked on him “periodically.”
Afterwards, she told investigators that she “frequently and carelessly” left her infant boy in a filled bathtub for “five-minute increments, unattended.”
Her son was unconscious and “floating on his side” when Bevar discovered him as the tub spilled.
Along with what the police described as a “known act of negligence,” they also noted that Bevar and her kid lived in an apartment that “had spoiled food and trash all over the floors” and that the bathroom contained “diapers containing exposed fecal matter.”
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There was also “no apparent children[‘s] clothing” and no toddler-safe food in the apartment.
Bevar was accused with two felonies: neglecting or abandoning a dependent person and endangering a child that could result in death. The Polk County Jail still holds her on $1 million cash bail.
