Mother, 20, is charged with infant son’s death

OLYMPIA – The mother of a 4-month-old boy who died Saturday at Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital has been charged with second-degree murder in Thurston County.

Rachel Bryan, 20, of Centralia, Wash., was initially arrested on suspicion of second-degree assault of a child on Sept. 20 after her son was admitted to Providence Centralia Hospital with head injuries.

Bryan was arrested by Thurston County sheriff’s deputies because the location where the child was injured was a mobile home in the 20000 block of Grand Mound Way in Thurston County.

The child was transferred to Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital in Tacoma, where he was placed on life support. He died there just after 4:30 p.m. Saturday.

Bryan was formally charged in Thurston County Superior Court with second-degree murder with aggravating circumstances, because she “knew or should have known that (the child) was particularly vulnerable or incapable of resistance,” according to charging documents.

According to court papers, Bryan has admitted to assaulting her baby.