Editor’s note: Updated Friday morning with additional details.
A Lancaster County woman was leaf blowing and not properly watching children she was babysitting when one of them fell into a pond and drowned last month, according to Pennsylvania State Police.
Anna King, 40, of Paradise, was charged Thursday with two counts of child endangerment related to the death of 2-year-old Lee Micah Zook. On Oct. 23, Zook fell into a fenced-in swimming pond on King’s farm on the 1500 block of Mine Road in Salisbury Township farm and was taken off life support at Hershey Medical Center on Oct. 26.
“This was a tragic accident. Ms. King is terribly sorry for what occurred. We will work with the district attorney to find a speedy and appropriate resolution,” Christopher Sarno, King’s attorney, said Friday.
Zook and King’s 4-year-old son had been playing in a barn and slipped out and crawled under the pond’s fence and then the King’s son went to get his two dogs at a neighbor’s house, according to police.
According to charging documents, King panicked when she saw her son with his dogs and not Zook. She then saw Zook floating in the pond, told a neighbor to call 911 and, using a flotation tube, swam to retrieve him and performed CPR along with a neighbor until emergency workers arrived.
State police said King told them that half an hour probably passed between seeing the boys at the barn and finding Zook in the pond.
King is free on unsecured bail. She has a preliminary hearing scheduled Dec. 3 before District Judge Raymond Sheller.
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