A woman was charged with murder Tuesday in the death of her 2-year-old son during a bath at the family’s Placentia home, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
Melissa Lynn Beisel, 41, also was charged with a felony count of assault on a child with force likely to produce great bodily injury resulting in death. She was being held without bail and expected to appear for a June 30 arraignment.
Officers were responded Sept. 22 to the home near Main Street and Santa Fe Avenue. The child was transported to a hospital, where he died.
Investigators determined the boy’s mother was giving him a bath when she stepped away, then returned to find the child facedown in the water, police said.
“The child was unresponsive and the mother attempted CPR,” said Lt. Joe Connell with the Placentia Police Department. “When CPR did not work the mother at that point in time, (she) harmed herself with a sharp object.”
Beisel told detectives that she was giving her son a bath in a storage bin that she was using as a bathtub inside her walk-in shower. She told police she had stepped away for two minutes to get some soap, then returned to find her son facedown in the water, police said.
Investigators said the mom never called police. One of her older children asked for help by calling 911, police said.
Until Beisel was taken into custody, she had barricaded herself in the bathroom with her unresponsive son for six hours, according to police.