Virginia girl, 5, dies in coin-operated washing machine
E/C Annie
ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHILHOWIE, Va. - Investigators were trying to find out how a 5-year-old
girl became fatally trapped inside a front-loading washing machine
while her mother stood outside the coin-operated laundry.
The Village Laundry remained closed yesterday after Rebecca Hope
Wagoner's death, which stunned many people in this southwestern
Virginia town of fewer than 3,000 residents.
"It's the worst, most horrific thing I've dealt with in my career,"
Police Chief Dwayne Sheffield said.
Rebecca was found unconscious about 9:30 p.m. Friday after someone
called to report that a child was inside one of the washers. By the
time officers arrived, the girl's mother had smashed the glass door
open with a rock and pulled her out.
After rescue workers tried to resuscitate Rebecca, she was transported
to a hospital at Kingsport, Tenn., where doctors pronounced her dead.
The child's mother, Rebecca Billings Wagoner, said that she had stepped
out of the downtown laundry and left Rebecca and her 14-year-old
brother inside, Sheffield said. Wagoner told police she saw Rebecca
inside the machine when she went inside. When she tried to open the
door, it wouldn't budge.
The washer's front door had a round glass window about 1 foot across.
The machine's capacity was about 35 pounds, not much more than the
30-pound child.
Investigators were awaiting autopsy results from the state medical
examiner's office in Roanoke.
Sheffield said officers found information "absolutely crucial to the
case" but declined to give further details or say whether charges were
pending.
"We want the family to get through this and grieve for the child," he
said.
A funeral was scheduled for today.
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/state/11953338.htm
tiny dancer
"E/C Annie" <cab...@cavtel.net> wrote in message
news:1119727947.9...@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
I'd still like to know what the 14 year old brother was doing at the time???
td
>
My2Cents
Stuffing her in the machine?
MaryL
"tiny dancer" <tinyda...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:_wive.3226$wm....@bignews4.bellsouth.net...
I saw this report several days ago and wondered the same thing. Even if the
girl could climb into the machine by herself, she surely couldn't close the
door (or turn it on).
MaryL
E/C Annie
MaryL wrote:
>
> I saw this report several days ago and wondered the same thing. Even if the
> girl could climb into the machine by herself, she surely couldn't close the
> door (or turn it on).
>
> MaryL
This is the story I was looking for originally, but couldn't seem to
find. The w/m manufacturer states the door can be closed - only from
the outside. Photo of the little one included.
annie
Va. Town Mourns Girl, 5, Killed In Washer
Manufacturer, Police Investigate Laundromat Death
By Ian Shapira
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 23, 2005; Page A12
The Village Laundromat in Chilhowie, Va., has become an unlikely
memorial ground, residents say. Teddy bears, toys and flowers have been
placed outside the building where a 5-year-old girl was killed last
week after she became trapped inside a washing machine.
Rebecca "Hope" Wagoner was buried yesterday at a cemetery near the
southwestern Virginia town of 2,000, and family and friends held a
memorial service honoring her life.
Town police are still investigating the death, which residents say is
as mystifying as it is distressing. Chilhowie Police Chief Dwayne
Sheffield said yesterday that the only witness was Hope's half brother.
Sheffield said he will discuss the incident with the prosecutor's
office by tomorrow.
Sheffield said an engineer from the washing machine's manufacturer,
Pellerin Milnor Corp. of Louisiana, came to town yesterday to determine
whether the machine was malfunctioning.
Jim Moran, the company's general counsel, said the washing machine door
locks airtight when money is inserted and the door is shut -- and can
be closed only from the outside. The door does not open until a cycle
is complete, he said, to prevent people from sticking their arms inside
the fast-moving cylinder.
"It would be extremely difficult for a little girl to crawl into the
machine and would be impossible for her to close the door by herself
since there's no place to grab it from the inside," Moran said.
"Someone else would have had to close the door. It doesn't close
gently. You've got to close it hard."
On Friday night, Hope walked with her mother, Rebecca Billings Wagoner,
and her 14-year-old half brother from their home to the nearby Village
Laundromat on Lee Highway, Sheffield said.
The children went inside while the mother waited outside for her
husband to pick them up, Sheffield said. The family was not there to
wash or dry clothing, he said. When Wagoner went inside to check on her
children, her son told her that Hope was inside the front-loading
washer and could not get out.
The mother used a pay phone to call 911 and told her son to find a rock
to break the glass on the machine's door. Police and rescue personnel
arrived at 9:25 p.m. and found Hope unconscious on the floor, covered
in water and glass.
She was flown to a hospital in neighboring Tennessee, where she was
pronounced dead. The medical examiner in Roanoke has not determined a
cause of death.
"It's such a strange incident, something you wouldn't think about
happening anywhere," said David Haynes, chief of the Chilhowie Fire
Department, whose firefighters were so distraught that they were
scheduled to meet with counselors last night. "It's struck everybody
hard and is the topic of conversation pretty much wherever you go."
Pastor Charles Herrell of the Chilhowie Baptist Church, which Hope
attended, said he spoke at her funeral yesterday.
"She had a great love for people. She had a real touch on people's
lives," he said. "The service was very hard for the mother and father."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/22/AR2005062202371.html
E/C Annie
MaryL wrote:
>
> I saw this report several days ago and wondered the same thing. Even if the
> girl could climb into the machine by herself, she surely couldn't close the
> door (or turn it on).
>
> MaryL
This story includes a brief interview with Hope's dad. annie
Laundromat Death Baffles Town
Virginia Community Wonders How Girl, 5, Became Trapped in Washer
By Leef Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 24, 2005; Page B01
CHILHOWIE, Va., June 23 -- The Village Laundry is shuttered, a hastily
written closed sign taped to the front window since it happened.
The shattered glass is gone now, and the owner has told friends that
the coin laundry might never reopen.
Locals know the story, but they come anyway, pressing against the front
windows to see the place, to try to relive the moment when Rebecca
Billings Wagoner attempted to save her child from the centrifugal grip
of a commercial clothes washer.
She "had so much blood under her fingernails, she still can't get it
out," one woman said, explaining to friends how Wagoner walked into the
laundry the night of June 17 to find her daughter, Hope, 5, tumbling
inside an air-locked washer filled with water. There was no visible
electrical cord to yank out of the wall.
Using a rock from the parking lot, Wagoner bashed through the washer's
front window, clawing at the glass to free the child. Friends said her
arms were cut to ribbons as she fought to pry her daughter from the
machine, but it was too late. Rebecca "Hope" Wagoner was pronounced
dead an hour later.
Now the question facing the tiny Appalachian town in southwest Virginia
is why she died.
"We just want to know," said resident Sandra Griffin. "How did it
happen?" Tears streamed down the cheeks of her son, Brandon, 15.
Police and prosecutors have spent the past week narrowing that down:
Hope's death was a prank gone wrong, a malicious act or a mechanical
failure.
Police said the girl and her 14-year-old half brother were the only
people in the laundry when she got inside the washer by herself or was
put there. What happened next is a mystery. Police said they are
examining security tapes from cameras inside the laundry and will
fingerprint any coins they find inside the washer.
Operating properly, the Milnor Automatic Washer-Extractor has a
31-minute wash cycle, its inside drum making 451 revolutions per minute
during a high-speed spin cycle. Officials said the door's heavy
snap-latch must be shut before the machine will take the 11 quarters it
needs to run. Then it locks air-tight and won't open again until the
wash cycle is complete.
Engineers from Milnor have been in town all week trying to determine
whether the washer malfunctioned, perhaps starting without coins being
inserted, as some residents who used the machine speculate might have
been the case.
"That thing has been eating money," said one woman who spoke on
condition of anonymity. It might have just taken off and started when
the door shut, she said.
The Wagoners live two doors from the Village Laundry. Rebecca Wagoner
told police she had gone there to use the pay phone to call her
husband, bringing along her daughter and son. She told police she was
outside when things went wrong.
Hope's father, William Wagoner, in a brief interview Thursday insisted
that there is "more to the story than you know." Although residents in
the town portrayed the Wagoners' relationship as on-again, off-again --
they share children from previous marriages -- William Wagoner said
they are very much together as a family. He said he was reluctant to go
into details until he spoke with his attorney, but he portrayed the
facts underlying his daughter's death as "a story you are never going
to believe."
"We're a happy family," he said. "No abuse. . . . But let me ask you,
do you believe one turn of events leads to another?"
Wagoner didn't stay on the phone long enough to answer his own
question.
Police Chief Dwayne Sheffield runs a five-man department in Chilhowie,
whose police blotter is filled almost solely by reports of domestic
violence and alcohol-related crimes. Hope Wagoner's death has been
anything but routine for Sheffield, whose phone has barely stopped
ringing since Monday, when word of the unusual death reached the media.
Residents said they feel the same kind of pain they felt eight years
ago, when a man shot and killed his girlfriend, his son and then
himself. The shootings devastated the town.
"Please, please, I beg you," Sheffield drawled as his cell phone
continued its ringing. He had tried fruitlessly for an hour to fill out
his department's payroll. But it would not happen. He said the medical
examiner's office had released its preliminary results that suggest
Hope died of asphyxiation, but the chief wants more concrete answers.
"This little girl deserves the truth to be found out, and that's just
what I'm going to do," Sheffield said. Until the investigation is
complete, he said, he would not risk a misstep or misspoken word.
Asked whether Rebecca Wagoner could be charged with neglect, he said
only that he will examine every possibility.
Outside a relative's home, Hope's uncle, Chris Breedlove, said it has
been hard on the family. "All the hugs and donations of food people
bring you won't fix nothing."
Hope was buried Wednesday. That night, two dozen mourners gathered
outside the laundry with candles to talk and weep. They tried to be
supportive of the family, but talk among them quickly turned to issues
of responsibility.
Regardless of how Hope Wagoner got into the washer, no matter how it
got turned on, most who gathered agreed that someone should have been
keeping an eye on the girl.
"That child should have been watched," Marie Keesee told the crowd
before joining in a verse of "Amazing Grace."
Down the street at the Speed Wash Laundromat, George Crabtree was
stuffing wet clothes into six dryers. He had grown accustomed to using
the Village Laundry to run giant loads of jeans and towels. He said he
didn't have the heart to do laundry after Hope's death.
Thursday, he dismissed any notion that Hope closed the door on her own.
"That little kid didn't shut that door from the inside," Crabtree said,
plunking quarters into the dryers. "Someone shut that door."
Keesee doesn't know what to think, but she's sure of one thing:
Tragedies such as Hope's death don't happen in small towns like
Chilhowie. "No," she said. "Not here."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/23/AR2005062301854.html
tiny dancer
>
>
> MaryL wrote:
>
> >
> > I saw this report several days ago and wondered the same thing. Even if
the
> > girl could climb into the machine by herself, she surely couldn't close
the
> > door (or turn it on).
> >
> > MaryL
> This story includes a brief interview with Hope's dad. annie
Thanks annie, my money is on the 14 yr. old half brother.
td
Betsy
|
| "E/C Annie" <cab...@cavtel.net> wrote in message
| news:1119731899.7...@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
| >
| >
| > MaryL wrote:
| >
| > >
| > > I saw this report several days ago and wondered the same thing.
Even if
| the
| > > girl could climb into the machine by herself, she surely
couldn't close
| the
| > > door (or turn it on).
| > >
| > > MaryL
| > This story includes a brief interview with Hope's dad. annie
|
|
|
| Thanks annie, my money is on the 14 yr. old half brother.
|
| td
I suspect it was the brother, too. I bet he thought it would be a
funny joke, never guessing that it would not open once it started. I can
imagine him telling her it would be "a fun ride" and never thought it
through long enough to envision the ghastly result. I am feeling very
bad for everyone involved, even the 14 year old who made a very immature
choice. I be he is wishing he was dead right now.
Betsy
Rev "Fragile Warrior"
"MaryL" <carst...@yahoo.comTAKE-OUT-THE-LITTER> wrote in message
news:xWive.89421$yV4.52315@okepread03...
If it was set to run, all she had to do was dig her nails into the door
gasket, pull and let it slam shut. I don't find that so unbelievable.
Perhaps she was trying to freak out her brother who wasn't paying any
attention to her.
MaryL
"Rev "Fragile Warrior"" <vol...@ccrtc.com> wrote in message
news:d9kjor$cvj$1...@news.iquest.net...
That would be almost impossible. This was a small child, those are large
doors that have to be slammed shut to cause them to latch, and then coins
have to be inserted to turn the machine on.
MaryL
misn...@webtv.net
around in a glass front washing machine. (sounds like an episode of lucy
ball guesting on "malcom in the middle."
obviously, these were trashy folks ("meeting to be picked up at
the wash-a-matic ?) maybe this was their version of disneyland
rides.....
Bo Raxo
The cops are fingerprinting the coins, and the only people in the
laundromat were the victim and her half-brother. Doesn't take Sherlock
Holmes to figure out where this is going.
If this follows the usual trajectory, in about four days we'll hear how
the brother is developmentally disabled, and didn't understand, and the
parents will try to put the blame on the washing machine's manufacturer
- they should have made it idiot-proof, those deep-pocketed bastids,
etc.
Gina M
Siblings Placed in Foster Care During Probe of Washer Death
By Leef Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, June 25, 2005; Page B02
MARION, Va., June 24 -- The siblings of a 5-year-old girl who was
killed last week when she became trapped inside a commercial washing
machine have been placed in foster care while investigators determine
whether neglect played a role her death, their father said Friday.
Standing outside his home, William Wagoner said the county's social
services department ordered the children into the temporary custody of
other family members while police continue their investigation into the
death of his daughter, Rebecca "Hope" Wagoner.
"They have no reason to keep my children from me," said Wagoner, his
voice breaking with sobs. "It's because I'm standing by my wife."
His wife, Rebecca Billings Wagoner, has told police that she took her
daughter and 14-year-old son to the Village Laundry in Chilhowie on
June 17 so she could use a pay phone. At some point, Rebecca Wagoner
stepped outside. When she returned to the laundry, she found her
daughter tumbling inside the locked, water-filled washer. There was no
visible electrical cord to pull or emergency shut-off, so she used a
rock from the parking lot outside to break the washer's small glass
door.
Hope was pronounced dead an hour later.
Police in the tiny mountain town just shy of the Tennessee and West
Virginia borders said they are still trying to determine how the girl
got inside the washer and how it turned on. The washer requires 11
quarters to operate and will not accept coins until the heavy door is
snapped shut. Investigators are examining a range of possibilities from
the most innocent -- that Hope climbed into the washer by herself,
slamming the door closed, and somehow the machine started -- to the
malicious death of Hope at the hands of her half brother.
Wagoner said he spent the morning in court addressing the foster-care
arrangement. By early afternoon, he was agitated. Standing in white
stocking feet on his front lawn, Wagoner accused the state of going too
far by taking his children, who he said have never been abused and were
never disrespectful to one another.
"They've stepped on the wrong snake this time," he said.
Wagoner insisted that there was no foul play on the part of his
stepson, calling whatever may have transpired between Hope and her
brother "horseplay."
Although he said he did not know how the 30-pound girl got inside the
washer, he blamed a faulty machine for starting when the door was
closed.
Wagoner said his stepson didn't have any money. "All the change they
had between them was 50 cents, and it was Hope's," he said.
Messages left with the Smyth County's commonwealth's attorney's office
and social services department were not returned. The couple has five
children between them; it was not clear how many were placed in foster
care.
Police said engineers with Milnor, the company that manufactures the
machine, have been running tests to see if the washer could have been
closed from the inside or malfunctioned.
The machine is meant for heavy loads of laundry and spins at high
speeds -- 451 rotations per minute -- during the spin cycle to extract
water from the wash. Police have said the wash cycle appeared to be
nearly complete before Hope could be pried from the washer by her
mother.
A preliminary finding by the medical examiner suggests that Hope died
of asphyxiation.
Adorned with a jukebox, a video game machine and soda and candy
machines, the Village Laundry was not an uncommon place to find
children, with or without their parents, residents say.
Today, the 35-pound-load Milnor Automatic Washer-Extractor is gone from
its spot inside the coin-op, impounded by police for further
investigation, but an identical machine sits just feet from a sign
warning "Use Washers at your own risk."
Residents of Chilhowie, a tight-knit community of 2,000, remain
supportive of the family, crowding the memorial service held for Hope
on Wednesday and bringing silk flowers and other tokens to the laundry
in her honor.
Still, many observers have said that the parents should have been
paying closer attention to their child's whereabouts.
"Where was the mama?" spat Barbara Davis, 58, who was in town from
Granite Quarry, N.C., visiting her mother. "She's the one who needs to
be charged."
Chilhowie resident Alan Keesee isn't so sure anyone should be held
accountable, seeing the tragedy as perhaps punishment in itself.
"They could charge someone, but the biggest price has already been
paid," Keesee said. "That little girl's not coming back."
Stevie
"Gina M" <gin...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1119787679.6...@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
>
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/24/AR2005062401656.html
...snipped
>" Wagoner said he spent the morning in court addressing the foster-care
> arrangement. By early afternoon, he was *agitated*. Standing in white
> stocking feet on his front lawn>
I would have picked a different word to describe his frustration.
Uncle Buck
<snip>
>Wagoner said he spent the morning in court addressing the foster-care
>arrangement. By early afternoon, he was agitated.
Bad choice of words.
>"Where was the mama?" spat Barbara Davis, 58, who was in town from
>Granite Quarry, N.C., visiting her mother. "She's the one who needs to
>be charged."
Bitches like this just burn my biscuits. It's way too early to make
statements like this. It may actually end up being true, but until we
know for sure, all a self-righteous bitch like this is interested in
doing is bolstering her own malicious, vindictive ego.
Hester Mofet
<Uncl...@SpamMeNot.com> wrote:
I don't think she's self righteous. I think more parents do need to be
charged if their kids do crap like this. Of course the first thing
people are going to say is where is the parent? That's natural. Heck,
maybe the mama did it herself and the 14 year old is too scared to talk
because he'd be left with the step family. If the 14 year old did it,
it could have been out of resentment at his half sister. Come on, you
have to admit that either way it went -- whether the boy did it or was
suspposed to be watching the girl and wasn't and she did it herself,
someone didn't do their job and that someone was the mother. Any
lawsuit filed in his case would be ridiculous unless the malfunction
was that the washing machine reached out and grabbed the kid, pulled
her in, shut the door and started running.
Hester "The Mangler" Mofet
Kathy
Let's face it : if all of us parents were put into prison for several
moments' inattention to our kids, we'd ALL be in there. Most of us are
just lucky that nothing disastrous happened during our lapses in
attention. No one on this earth can watch even one child every single
minute of every day and have any kind of normal life. I have 3 grown
children and I can think of several near-disasters caused by my looking
away for a minute or two when they were very young. We were just very
lucky.
If, as I read, this place has attractions like video games and soda and
candy machines which attract children, the owners ARE somewhat
responsible for what happens to those children they attract to their
establishment.
Kathy
>
> Hester "The Mangler" Mofet
tiny dancer
"Uncle Buck" <Uncl...@SpamMeNot.com> wrote in message
news:knptb1lqkonhhbmla...@4ax.com...
I'm with you uncle buck. Was the child 5 or 7 I wonder, as I've seen both
ages stated. Either way, she seems awfully small for a child that age. I
think I read she was only 30 pounds? My grandson, who just turned 2, was
28 pounds at his two year check up, and he's not hardly even considered
*chubby* anymore. He just looks like a normal two year old in constant
motion. The child was left with a 14 yr. old brother. It's not as if the
mom left the child *alone* somewhere. Thought I'd read she stepped outside
to use the pay phone??
td
tiny dancer
"Kathy" <kb...@verizon.net> wrote in message
news:Owzve.474$At6.470@trndny09...
Exactly what Kathy said. I have three grown children also, and was very
lucky a couple times. You just can't watch children every moment. Yes,
when they are one, two, three, you do the best you can to watch everything
all the time, but by the time they are 5, 6, 7 etc., they should be able to
not have *constant* supervision 24/7. I don't think anyone can say they
watched their children every moment of every day. At least not anyone who
is not now residing in a *nut house*.
td
vivisectrix
with that theory.
In order to make this happen, someone had to either talk the child into
crawling into the machine or stuff her into the machine. Then that person
had to close and seal the machine. That would require closing the door,
pushing a button on the handle, and turning the handle into the "lock"
position while pushing hard on the door. Sealing and locking one of these
machines actually takes some force. Then that person would have had to put
11 quarters into the machine, which would have involved at least two coin
insertions. A few of these machines still have single quarter slots, but
most have the kind you push in, which hold 4 or 6 quarters at a time.
Assuming it was the latter, someone would have had to place 6 quarters
into the slots, shove in the mechanism that accepts the money, then place
5 more in and do it again.
All of that takes some forethought. Essentially, it would be first-degree
murder.
A 14-year-old boy is nowhere near an adult. A 14-year-old boy has barely
entered puberty, and they don't think ahead. 14-year-old boysgenerally
kill people by beating them up, stabbing them, or shooting them. In other
words, when they murder by opportunity or with forethought, they do it
fast and physically, with their own hands. I can see where a 14-year-old
boy would put his baby sister into a washing machine in "horseplay", but I
can't see one deliberately murdering his sister in this way. And in the
horseplay scenario, I can't see a 14-year-old boy wasting two dollars and
75 cents worth of candy and video quarters to extend "horseplay."
If it was a 14-year-old *girl*, I'd be more suspicious of her, because a
14-year-old girl is much more physically adult than a 14-year-old boy, and
(sorry Michael, but it's true) a 14-year-old girl is a lot more likely to
come up with a murder plan like this, in order to get away with it. A
14-year-old girl would be likely to know that the machine would kill a
child, and she'd be more likely to think she wouldn't get caught, since
it's such a bizarre murder. She'd believe that people would think it had
been an accident or a machine malfunction. But we're not talking about a
girl. We're talking about a boy. And I'm having trouble imagining a
14-year-old boy doing this.
I'm looking forward to seeing those videotapes. I don't believe that the
machine malfunctioned. Either I'm completely wrong in my assessment of
this particular 14-year-old boy or he's not a really a suspect.
But the only other options I can visualize are that the mother did it,
which seems improbable, since the reports I've read seem to portray her as
a shocked and desperate woman doing absolutely everything she could to
save her child when she discovered her in the machine, or an unknown
suspect who came in while the boy wasn't paying attention (playing video
games, using the bathroom, whatever) and managed to get the child into the
machine without being noticed, then subsequently left the laundrymat,
again without being noticed by anyone. And that's an even more likely
scenario.
So I'm looking forward to finding out. Because this feels like an actual
mystery to me.
Vivi
--
I wanna play with a pathetic suicidal masochist.
vivisectrix
>...then subsequently left the laundrymat, again without being noticed by
>anyone. And that's an even more likely scenario.
When what I *meant* to say was, "that's an even more UNlikely scenario.
Doh!
Gina M
Town mourns girl's death
Police say little so the rumors go on about child killed in washer
BY REX BOWMAN
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Jun 25, 2005
CHILHOWIE -- For days now, drivers have been slowing to a near stop as
they roll past the Village Laundry in this small factory town, turning
to stare at the place where a little girl became trapped in a washing
machine and died. As if seeing the small building could provide
answers.
Chilhowie is a town with lots of sympathy and many questions, and
staring past the plate-glass windows of the coin-operated laundry on
West Lee Highway where 5-year-old Rebecca Hope Wagoner perished June 17
seems to be residents' attempt to make sense of the girl's death.
Local police are saying little, and in the absence of information,
theories abound, rumors swirl, gossip travels from lip to lip.
"You hear something one minute, you hear something else another
minute," said Angie Warren, who said she has stopped by the Village
Laundry every day since Hope's death. "Everybody around here within 60
or 70 miles is talking about it."
As she spoke, Warren and her daughter added several stuffed animals to
the makeshift memorial to Hope that has sprung up in front of the coin
laundry. Stuffed animals, cards, balloons, toys and flowers lay in a
jumble on a bench. In front of the business's entrance, mourners have
placed dozens of candles.
Police say Rebecca Billings Wagoner brought Hope and Hope's 14-year-old
half-brother to the laundry on the night of June 17. The mother briefly
stepped outside and when she returned, she found her 30-pound daughter
trapped in a triple-load washer, its wash cycle begun, its door sealed
shut and locked.
Unable to find a way to unplug the machine, a frantic Wagoner used a
rock retrieved from the parking lot to smash the glass door, then
reached inside to pull her daughter out through the shards of glass.
Hope was flown to a hospital in Tennessee, 35 miles south, where she
was pronounced dead.
"She was my best friend," said 5-year-old Kelly Frye between licks of
her sucker yesterday as her mother, Tina Frye, took laundry out of a
machine at the Speed Wash Laundromat in Chilhowie. Kelly was in
preschool with Hope and also attended church with her.
Tina Frye said she always did her laundry at the Village Laundry, which
is now closed, and often she and Rebecca Wagoner would chat while
waiting for clothes to wash and dry.
"Hope, she was a sweetheart and loved to play," Frye said, "and her
mother always took care of her kids. I've never seen her not take care
of her kids. That's all we talked about, the kids."
The state medical examiner's office in Roanoke determined that Hope
died of asphyxiation "due to entrapment in an enclosed space." Dr.
William Massello of the examiner's office said Hope suffered no
injuries from tumbling around inside the drum, but she had numerous
cuts from the glass.
The unusual death, while causing anguish throughout the town of 2,000,
has prompted a host of questions: How did Hope get in the washer? Was
it an accident that could have been avoided? Did the machine
malfunction? And, the darkest question: Was Hope intentionally harmed?
The questions are being asked not just in Chilhowie, but in surrounding
hamlets and towns of Smyth County. And the questions are giving rise to
speculative answers. "You hear all kinds of stories, and they keep
getting bigger and bigger," said Phyllis Gray, who lives across a
narrow country road from where Hope was buried, on a hilltop in the
community of Atkins.
Not all of the stories are kind. Some, instead of focusing on the
mother's heroics in trying to save Hope, suggest the girl should have
been kept under a more watchful eye.
Shirley Little, owner of the Cinderella Beauty Salon in downtown
Chilhowie, said she doesn't pay any attention to that kind of talk. "I
know she loved her kids. When people are down, you shouldn't keep them
down by gossiping."
A frequently heard theory is that Hope was the victim of bad judgment
and a faulty washer. The machine, made by the Pellerin Milnor Corp. of
Kenner, La., requires 11 quarters to operate. According to the theory,
someone put enough quarters in the machine, but walked away when it
wouldn't work; when the door was later shut with Hope inside, it began
functioning, filling with water and spinning at 460 revolutions per
minute.
Did the machine malfunction? Employees of Pellerin Milnor were in town
this week to examine the washer. It has been removed; where it sat,
bolts jut up from the floor. Jim Moran, general counsel for the
company, would not say what the employees found when they checked the
machine. But he did say Hope could not have closed the door herself:
The door requires a forceful push from the outside to close. Once shut,
the door locks airtight.
How did Hope get inside? Police Chief Dwayne Sheffield declined to
provide details of his investigation. He suggested the 14-year-old
half-brother played a role, but he said even saying that much was more
than he should because sharing details could be "really detrimental to
the case."
Investigators retrieved footage taken from cameras inside the laundry
and sent it to the prosecutor. Sheffield wouldn't say what the footage
showed.
Florence Powell, assistant prosecutor for Smyth, said she will not have
anything to say about Hope's death and Sheffield's investigation until
next week.
In the meantime, the people of Chilhowie are left to mourn. And
speculate.
Hester Mofet
<tinyda...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Exactly what Kathy said. I have three grown children also, and was very
> lucky a couple times. You just can't watch children every moment. Yes,
> when they are one, two, three, you do the best you can to watch everything
> all the time, but by the time they are 5, 6, 7 etc., they should be able to
> not have *constant* supervision 24/7. I don't think anyone can say they
> watched their children every moment of every day. At least not anyone who
> is not now residing in a *nut house*.
>
> td
Let me clarify a little bit more about what I meant. I meant if there
was some major resentment on the part of the boy and the mother left
him alone with the girl, then mom wasn't doing her job. Not necessarily
by not watching the kids, you can't do that every moment of every day,
but by not dealing with the son's issues. If the son did it as a prank,
he certainly has impulse control issues as I knew when I was much
younger than 14 not to get into a washer, for chrissake. I really hope
the surveillance tapes show that this was just some freak accident.
Hester Mofet
tiny dancer
"Hester Mofet" <HesterNO...@speakeasy.net> wrote in message
news:260620051747383774%HesterNO...@speakeasy.net...
Okay, I didn't understand that part. We had a neighbor who had a son from
another relationship, and then two younger daughters from her current
marriage. I think sometimes mothers 'overlook' things that we outsiders see
clearly. Not saying that's the case here, but the woman I was referring to,
well I wouldn't have trusted that boy with my children, alone. His
'resentment' for the younger girls was very obvious. I hope these tapes
show how it happened too. And I'm still wondering what those vague comments
the father made were all about?
td
E/C Annie
tiny dancer wrote:
Was the child 5 or 7 I wonder, as I've seen both
> ages stated.
<snipped>
> td
Obituary shows her age as 5.
annie
tiny dancer
Thanks, I don't know where I got 7 from.
td
>
catherine yronwode
>
> "Uncle Buck" <Uncl...@SpamMeNot.com> wrote
> > >"Where was the mama?" spat Barbara Davis, 58, who was in town
> > >fromGranite Quarry, N.C., visiting her mother. "She's the one
> > >who needs tobe charged."
> >
> > Bitches like this just burn my biscuits. It's way too early to
> > make statements like this. It may actually end up being true,
> > but until we know for sure, all a self-righteous bitch like this
> > is interested in doing is bolstering her own malicious,
> > vindictive ego.
>
> The child was left with a 14 yr. old brother. It's not as if the
> mom left the child *alone* somewhere. Thought I'd read she stepped
> outside to use the pay phone??
Unless the 14 year old was retarded or psychotic, he would
be exactly the right age to be entrusted with the brief care
of his half-sister in an enclosed and relatively safe space
like a laundromat. All this "Where was the mama?" stuff is
pretty malevolent, in my opinion.
Now, if it turns out that the step-brother was retarded or
had previously demonstrated anger, violence, verbal
agrression, or physical abuse to the little girl or to
family pets, or was known to the family to be mentally ill
(e.g. if he was seeing a therapist and/or was on medication
for mental illness) -- well, then i think that no
*responsible* mother should have left him alone to care for
her smaller child.
But until someone says that the family knew the boy was a
walking time-bomb, i'm thinking that the mother really did
what any mother would do -- trust an almost-grown male child
to protect a small female child and to immediately call out
for help if there was trouble.
One thing that bothers me, though, is that no one has said
that the boy called out to the mother for help. The stories
usually present the mother coming in and "finding" the child
in the washer.
So i am thinking that the boy really is the culprit here,
and the main question i have is -- could the mother have
known this beforehand, somehow -- or not?
Also, i expect that the washing machine company needs to
review the matter of an emergency shut-off button. I am
surprised that none was available because ... "accidents do
happen."
cat yronwode
Sandi
"catherine yronwode" <c...@luckymojo.com> wrote in message
news:42BF5DB6...@luckymojo.com...
The boy could have been playing one, or even simply standing there looking
at the video games, and paying no attention whatsoever to his little sister
until the mother walked back in.
> So i am thinking that the boy really is the culprit here,
> and the main question i have is -- could the mother have
> known this beforehand, somehow -- or not?
>
I attended a school not far from that town, and I can tell you that a
14-year-old boy from around there may well have been so stupid as to think
stuffing his littler sister into a washing machine was a prank. If there
was a malfunction as someone else described where money had been put into
the machine by someone else beforehand, he may have just shut the door and
blammo! Also, the statements in the press that the mother came in and found
the child could simply describe her coming in after her son yelled for help.
News reports are notorious for these minor little things which aren't
exactly untrue statements, but by omission or vagueness seem to mean
something other than the exact truth.
> Also, i expect that the washing machine company needs to
> review the matter of an emergency shut-off button. I am
> surprised that none was available because ... "accidents do
> happen."
>
> cat yronwode
One would think there would be some sort of shutoff, given that the door
can't be opened once the machine stops. I seem to remember a similar case
of a child being locked in one of these same types of machines but the
machine fortunately not turning on. I believe there was a suffocation risk
there, too (can't remember if the child actually survived or not) but at
least the cycle didn't start! What a horrible, horrible way to die, and to
watch your child die. If the mother was negligent, and I'm not ready yet to
say she was, nothing the state can ever do to her will surpass the price she
has already paid.
Sandi
SarahB
vivisectrix wrote: <snipped>
> The obvious suspect here is obviously the teenager, but I have problems
> with that theory.
>
> In order to make this happen . . . <snip>
. . . that person would have had to put
> 11 quarters into the machine, which would have involved at least two coin
> insertions.
>
> All of that takes some forethought. Essentially, it would be first-degree
> murder.
>... I can't see a 14-year-old boy wasting two dollars and
> 75 cents worth of candy and video quarters to extend "horseplay."
>
> Vivi
>
Did you see the part of the story describing the malfunction of the
machine? The machine had been filled with quarters by a previous
customer. The machine did not start for the customer, even though he
had put in the correct amount of money.... He had to do his laundry
in another machine.
The machine starting likely came as a complete surprise to the brother,
if he shut the door on his sister as a prank. The door lock engaged
and the machine began operating even though no money had been added.
I've personally experienced similar machine malfuntions in a local
laundromat - money in, no start.
Monkey with the door a few times, machine starts.
SarahB
vivisectrix wrote: <snipped>
> The obvious suspect here is obviously the teenager, but I have problems
> with that theory.
>
> In order to make this happen . . . <snip>
. . . that person would have had to put
> 11 quarters into the machine, which would have involved at least two coin
> insertions.
>
> All of that takes some forethought. Essentially, it would be first-degree
> murder.
>... I can't see a 14-year-old boy wasting two dollars and
> 75 cents worth of candy and video quarters to extend "horseplay."
>
Nancy Rudins
That seems to be the most likely scenario. I've had that happen to me
as well during my laundromat days. It's been a long time, but I don't
remember any sort of emergency shut-off button on those machines. A
huge oversight, IMO.
Kind regards,
Nancy
--
Flame War is over ... if you want it.
Nancy Rudins nru...@ncsa.uiuc.edu
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/People/nrudins/
vivisectrix
>>The obvious suspect here is obviously the teenager, but I have problems
>>with that theory.
>>In order to make this happen... <snip>
>>...that person would have had to put 11 quarters into the machine, which
>>would have involved at least two coin insertions.
>>All of that takes some forethought. Essentially, it would be first-
>>degree murder.
>>...I can't see a 14-year-old boy wasting two dollars and 75 cents worth
>>of candy and video quarters to extend "horseplay."
>Did you see the part of the story describing the malfunction of the
>machine? The machine had been filled with quarters by a previous
>customer. The machine did not start for the customer, even though he had
>put in the correct amount of money.... He had to do his laundry in
>another machine.
No, I didn't see that. I saw mention of that as a possible theory, but I
haven't read anything that sounded like it was a known fact. I'm behind in
the news though, and if I missed an article, that would explain a lot.
My2Cents
>> the time???
Brother charged in washer death
A 14-year-old Chilhowie boy has been charged with involuntary
manslaughter in the June death of his 5-year-old half sister, Rebecca
Hope Wagoner, who suffocated inside a coin laundry's operating washing
machine.
The boy admitted putting the girl in the washer, said the children's
grandmother, Anna Billings. "He told his mother that night that he done
it."
Smyth County prosecutors announced the felony charge yesterday but
would not answer questions about the case. The boy could face up to 10
years in prison if tried and convicted as an adult.
However, Chilhowie Police Chief Dwayne Sheffield said he believes the
boy will be prosecuted as a juvenile. If convicted as a minor, the boy
could be freed from detention when he turns 18. The Times-Dispatch is
withholding his name at this time.
Hope died of asphyxiation on June 17, not long after her mother,
Rebecca Billings Wagoner, brought Hope and her half brother to the
Village Laundry in Chilhowie, a short walk from their home. The mother
stepped outside and when she returned, she found her 30-pound daughter
trapped inside a triple-load Pellerin Milnor washer. The machine's wash
cycle had begun.
Wagoner could not turn off the machine. Because the machine's glass
door seals shut when the washer is on, Wagoner had to use a rock
retrieved from the parking lot to smash the door and pull Hope out.
Hope was pronounced dead at a Tennessee hospital.
The girl's death and her half brother's possible involvement have been
the talk of this town of 2,000 for the past three weeks, and opinion
has been split on whether charges should be filed.
Some said the death seemed like a prank gone horribly wrong and that
prosecution would only add to the mother's grief, while others have
argued that putting a child in a washing machine even one not operating
-- constitutes reckless endangerment worthy of punishment.
"My feeling is that most of the public wanted charges to be pressed or
some action to be taken," Sheffield said.
Asked how she felt about the charge against her grandson, Billings
replied, "I don't think he should get away with it."
Chilhowie police have said Hope and her half brother were the only two
inside the laundry at the time of the incident. A spokesman for the
Pellerin Milnor Corp. of Kenner, La., said that the door cannot be shut
from the inside and that a forceful push is needed to close it from the
outside. The machine requires 11 quarters to start.
Jeff Campbell, a Marion lawyer hired by Wagoner, did not return
repeated phone calls seeking comment.
Involuntary manslaughter is generally defined as a killing that, though
lacking in malice, is unlawful. Larry Larsen, a Los Angeles-area
distributor of coin-laundry equipment, disagreed with the charge in
Chilhowie. He is preparing to testify as an expert witness in a civil
trial resulting from a similar washing-machine incident in California.
Unless the prosecution shows the boy put the 11 quarters into the
machine, the prosecution cannot argue he knew stuffing his sister in
the washer would jeopardize her life, Larsen said.
"If it was a prank and he didn't understand the consequences of his
act, how could he anticipate death?" Larsen said. "I'm really surprised
at the charge."
catherine yronwode
>
> >> I'd still like to know what the 14 year old brother was doing at
> >> the time???
> > Stuffing her in the machine?
>
> Brother charged in washer death
>
> A 14-year-old Chilhowie boy has been charged with involuntary
> manslaughter in the June death of his 5-year-old half sister,
> Rebecca Hope Wagoner, who suffocated inside a coin laundry's
> operating washing machine.
Thanks for the update. Now the prosecutor needs to prove (was there
a security video?) that the boy put the necessary 11 quarters into
the machine.
Cordially,
cat yronwode
Carmen
The charge is involuntary manslaughter, not homicide, so it'd be my
guess the machine had quarters in it already. That covers his
culpability in the act of shoving her in the washing machine and
closing the door, as well as the mitigating circumstance of the
machine starting on its own.
--
Lab Law #5: Hydrochloric acid looks just like water.
Carmen
Kris Baker
What a repellant family....or stepfather, at least!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/07/AR2005070702246_1.html
"Hope's father, William Wagoner, yesterday defended
his stepson, saying he would testify on his behalf in
court.
"He's still welcome in my home," Wagoner said. "I
still love him."
While Wagoner would not comment on the details of
the case, he said he believed charges were not
appropriate and characterized his son's arrest as
politically motivated.
"I'm not surprised they did it," Wagoner said. "Why?
Because the election is in 2006."
Political? The kid killed his little sister, and it's all because
of an election?
William Wagoner said he is now focused on holding
Pellerin Milnor accountable for his daughter's death.
"They should put a cutoff switch 50 feet from any
industrial machine," Wagoner said. "If there had been
a shut-off switch my daughter would still be alive today."
There is, you fool. It's called the circuit breaker panel.
And besides....the manufacturer of the washing machine
isn't the one who installs the electrical (or the cut-offs).
Sue your stepson for this purposeful act.
Kris
vdl33
"Kris Baker" <kris....@prodigyyy.net> wrote in message
news:94vze.1831$Xp6...@newssvr33.news.prodigy.com...
Home washing machines have a shutoff switch. I wonder why industrial machines
don't have a shutoff switch.
~vdl
My2Cents
> necessary 11 quarters into the machine.
Or they can charge him with theft, too!
(er, sorry ... sick sense of humor some days)
Betsy
"Daddy Freddy" <daddy_...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:bsduc1dh3co96pcap...@4ax.com...
| On Fri, 08 Jul 2005 13:20:06 GMT, "Kris Baker"
took to get a
| rock from the parking lot would have been the critical amount of
time that made
| the difference between life and death?
Quite possibly. I don't think the brother intended for this to
happen. I think he was pulling a prank and panicked when he realized
what was happening. In his youthful inexperience, he probably thought it
would be no big deal to just open the door, not realizing it would be
impossible. He probably was trying very hard to figure out what to do,
trying to fix his screw-up, waiting until too late to alert the mother.
If there had been a well marked emergency turn-off switch, he could have
pulled it much sooner, preventing the end tragedy.
What the boy did was very stupid. Somehow, I don't think he intended
death for his little sister.
Betsy
