Foster Mother Who Left Toddler To Drown In Bathtub Cried To Police “I Don’t Want To Go To Jail”

[Sugar Cookie]

A Philadelphia foster mother is facing a murder charge nearly nine months after a 20-month-old boy drowned in her bathtub in a case that has sparked outrage from the child’s biological family.

Apalosnia Watson, 39, has been charged with third-degree murder and endangering the welfare of a child in the death of Sy’vir Hill, court records show, according to CBS News.

According to a probable cause affidavit, Watson was caring for Sy’vir and two other young children – ages 4 and 2 – when she left them in the bath unattended while she went downstairs to heat up food in the microwave.

On her way to the kitchen, she reportedly heard “flipping in the water,” she later told police. When she returned, Sy’vir was facedown in the tub.

Watson attempted CPR and called 911. Paramedics arrived and attempted life-saving measures, but Sy’vir was pronounced dead at the scene.

A responding officer described Watson as visibly upset, screaming and crying, and repeatedly stating, “I don’t want to go to jail.”

Despite the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office having conducted a postmortem exam the following day, the child’s cause and manner of death remained pending for nine months.

At the time of the boy’s death, there were several other children living in the home, including the 4-year-old and 2-year-old who were also in the bathtub, Hill’s 4-month-old sister, and a 17-year-old, according to a police report.

Sy’vir’s biological mother Sharee Collins filed a civil lawsuit in October against Tabor Children’s Services and Northeast Treatment Centers, accusing them of placing her son in an overcrowded home. Her attorney said documents showed Watson had four foster children under the age of five in addition to other child relatives in the home and was “at her max.”

A.J. Thomson, who represents Collins in a wrongful-death lawsuit questioned Watson’s decision to leave the children unattended.

“What food was that important that you would leave three kids that age in the tub by themselves?” he said.

Foster mom charged with murder after toddler drowned in her bathtub, cops say

Investigators say the woman left the child and two others in the bath while she left to heat up food

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