Newborn In Toilet Ruled An Accident

No criminal charges will be filed in the case of a newborn found dead in a portable toilet at a berry farm, a Pierce County deputy prosecutor says.

“After reviewing everything, it looks to us like an accidental death, a spontaneous birth into a toilet,” deputy prosecutor Kit Proctor said.

The county medical examiner’s office earlier said the nearly fullterm infant drowned, and it listed the death as accidental.

A maintenance worker found the infant in a toilet at a berry farm on July 11, shortly after the mother, a 21-year-old migrant worker, was hospitalized.

The mother had become ill while picking berries at the George Richter Farms near Puyallup and collapsed in the portable toilet.