LAKEVILLE, Minn. -- A Lakeville mother has been charged with two counts of manslaughter in the drowning death of her 11-month-old daughter.
Lakeville police said that Katherine Renae Bodem, 38, was shopping for shoes online when her daughter, Cecelia Katherine, drowned in the bathtub.
In a criminal complaint filed in Dakota County, a Lakeville investigator said that several officers arrived at Bodem's home on Aug. 25 to find two women out in front of the house administering CPR to a baby. Officers said another woman, who was identified as Bodem, was standing nearby and was frantically yelling, "It's all my fault" and repeatedly told officers, "“I’m so stupid, this has been a horrible year for me.”
Investigators said Bodem told police that she put the girl and her 2-year-old son in the bathtub on the main floor of the house while she went downstairs for a few minutes where her other two children were playing. Bodem told officers that said she could still hear Cecelia and her brother playing and laughing, but after there was silence, she went upstairs and saw her son pulling Cecelia from the tub.
Bodem told police at the time that she had left the two children unattended in the tub for about 10 minutes.
One of Bodem's other children told police that she thought Bodem was buying shoes online when Bodem was downstairs with them, because Bodem had broken a pair. The child said she thought that Bodem had been away from the tub for about 20 minutes and that they had all heard Cecelia and her brother laughing in the tub. The child told police that they heard Cecelia crying and that shortly afterwards, the son came downstairs and said, "Mom, CC."
Meanwhile, Betty Koberoski, Bodem's mother, told the St. Paul Pioneer Press that she fears her daughter suffers from depression. Koberoski told the Pioneer Press she called county authorities nearly a year ago to report her concerns about her daughter’s children. Prior to the baby’s death, Bodem had four children, the oldest of whom is 10.
Koberoski told the newspaper that she received an upbeat birthday card from her daughter after the baby’s birth. Then weeks passed without any contact, and her daughter filed a restraining order against Koberoski in November, the Pioneer Press reported.
“Last November, I called Dakota County ... and said I am so scared for those children because my daughter is suffering from postpartum depression,” Koberoski told the newspaper. "I still do not know the details. It is so sad. I loved that child so much. I love my daughter.”
Bodem is charged with two counts of second-degree manslaughter. If convicted, she could face up to 10 years in prison and $20,000 in fines.
http://www.channel3000.com/news/14307985/detail.html
A pretty bad year for the kid too. RIP Cecelia
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Originally Posted by bowieluva
