Published March 20. 2026 02:45PM<\/p>\n
The Lehigh County District Attorney\u2019s Office reported Thursday Katrina Pantuso, 35, of Coplay, was charged with involuntary manslaughter, endangering the welfare of a child and recklessly endangering another person stemming from the investigation of her 2-month-old daughter\u2019s death on Nov. 4 of last year.<\/p>\n
Authorities said the child died of asphyxiation while she and her mother shared a bed.<\/p>\n
The district attorney\u2019s office said the death occurred in the 100 block of South Front Street, Coplay, where emergency personnel were summoned for a report of an infant not breathing. They said the child was transported to a nearby hospital, where she was pronounced dead.<\/p>\n
While the girl was determined to have died from asphyxia, authorities said it was not able to be determined the manner.<\/p>\n
Authorities said Pantuso told them they were co-sleeping in her bed. The release said Pantuso had been warned several times about the dangers of doing that.<\/p>\n
Police said a leafy substance was found in the room and there was a bassinette that Pantuso had been given so she would stop co-sleeping with her daughter.<\/p>\n
The district attorney\u2019s office said a forensic pathologist suggested the asphyxia happened due to \u201coverlay\u201d by the combination of sleeping in an adult bed with pillows and blankets, with an adult under the influence of sedating medication, and the child in a face-down position.<\/p>\n
Investigators said a search of Pantuso\u2019s phone led them to determine she had used drugs the day of her daughter\u2019s death, and she previously had fed her, fell asleep and dropped her on the floor, according to officials.<\/p>\n
Arrest documents said Pantuso and her daughter went to bed about 11:30 a.m. that day, and the two were in the same position before falling asleep. They said Pantuso awakened two hours later, and her daughter was now behind her, was not breathing and was cold to the touch.<\/p>\n
Pantuso told police she had taken methadone earlier in the day and said she was aware it makes her \u201cvery drowsy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following her arraignment, she was committed to the Lehigh County Prison, Allentown, in lieu of $100,000 bail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published March 20. 2026 02:45PM The Lehigh County District Attorney\u2019s Office reported Thursday Katrina Pantuso, 35, of Coplay,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2240,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-144686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}