A 41-year-old mother was charged Tuesday with killing her 2-year-old son in Placentia.
Melissa Lynn Beisel of Fresno was charged with murder and a felony count of assault on a child with force likely to produce great bodily injury resulting in death. Beisel did not enter a plea at her arraignment Tuesday, and it was rescheduled for June 30 in the North Justice Center in Fullerton.
Officers were called to the home in the area of Main Street and Santa Fe Avenue at about 9 p.m. Sept. 22. Paramedics rushed Aidan Beisel to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to the Placentia Police Department.
Investigators in September said Aidan’s mother was giving the child a bath when she stepped away, then returned to find the toddler face down in the water, police said.
“Her statement to investigators was that she stepped away for a short period to grab something,” Placentia Police Department Lt. Joe Connell added.
The mother was also taken to a hospital then for treatment of unspecified self-inflicted injuries, Connell said. She was booked in September but prosecutors did not immediately file charges and she was released.
Prosecutors alleged that further investigation “ruled out drowning” as what caused the child’s death, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors said officers found the defendant in the home’s shower with the body of her son with the water running.
Four other children, all in their early to mid-teens, lived at the home, the lieutenant said.
“The investigation revealed that the mother was giving the child a bath in a walk-in shower, using a plastic storage bin,” Connell said in September. “The mother walked out of the bathroom to obtain some soap and left the child alone for approximately 2 minutes. When the mother returned, she found the child face down in the bin, unresponsive.”
Beisel stayed in the bathroom with the child for about six hours before a family member found her and called authorities, Connell said. Prosecutors said the boy’s father called 911 when he saw the two in the shower, prosecutors said.
“Based on investigation at the scene as well as interviews conducted, Beisel was taken into custody after being discharged from the hospital (and booked on suspicion of) involuntary manslaughter and child abuse causing great bodily injury,” police said in September.