{"id":172886,"date":"2026-04-22T15:17:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T15:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/172886\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T15:17:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T15:17:09","slug":"lehigh-county-mom-faces-trial-in-infants-co-sleeping-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/172886\/","title":{"rendered":"Lehigh County mom faces trial in infant’s co-sleeping death"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Lehigh County mother charged in the death of her 2-month-old child from asphyxiation while they shared a bed last year<\/a> faces trial in Lehigh County Court.<\/p>\n

A district judge determined Tuesday after Katrina Pantuso\u2019s preliminary hearing that there was enough evidence to proceed to county court on the charges alleging she was responsible for her daughter\u2019s death, Lehigh County District Attorney Gavin Holihan said in a news release.<\/p>\n

Pantuso remains in Lehigh County Jail on $100,000 bail, charged with involuntary manslaughter, endangering child welfare and recklessly endangering another person in the Nov. 4, 2025, death of her child in their Coplay home.<\/p>\n

The girl was found not breathing in the home in the 100 block of South Front Street, according to borough police. She was taken to a nearby hospital, where she was pronounced dead. The county coroner\u2019s office determined her death was caused by asphyxia, but the manner could not be determined.<\/p>\n

A forensic pathologist noted that the combination of sleeping in an adult bed with pillows and blankets, with an adult under the influence of sedating medication, and in a face-down position, suggests that the death may have happened because of asphyxia and \u201coverlay,\u201d the DA\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n

Pantuso had told authorities she was co-sleeping with the child in the bed, despite being warned several times about that, according to police. She was given a bassinette so she could stop co-sleeping with her daughter, authorities said.<\/p>\n

Investigators searched her phone and determined she used drugs the day her daughter died, and she had previously fed her, fell asleep and dropped her on the floor, authorities said.<\/p>\n

Pantuso and her daughter went to bed about 11:30 a.m., and they were in the same position before falling asleep, court documents state. She woke up two hours later, and her daughter was now behind her, according to police. Her daughter was not breathing and cold to the touch, authorities said.<\/p>\n

Additionally, Pantuso admitted to taking methadone the day earlier, and knew it makes her \u201cvery drowsy,\u201d police said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Lehigh County mother charged in the death of her 2-month-old child from asphyxiation while they shared a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,8469,16851,46,433,182,139,28,432,1653,1654],"class_list":{"0":"post-172886","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-allentown","8":"tag-allentown","9":"tag-allentown-headlines","10":"tag-allentown-news","11":"tag-catasauqua","12":"tag-coplay","13":"tag-courts","14":"tag-lehigh-county","15":"tag-local-news","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-pennsylvania","18":"tag-top-stories-tmc","19":"tag-whitehall-area","20":"tag-whitehall-township"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172886","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=172886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}