Police: Kids Killed By Eating Poisonous Plants
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The following appears courtesy of the 6/28/00 online edition of The
KCBS-TV,
local Los Angeles California CBS-TV station:
Wednesday June 28, 2000
Police: Kids Killed By Eating Poisonous Plants
Investigators confirmed Tuesday that two El Segundo boys found dead in
their beds last month were poisoned by eating plants.
The boys' parents called 911 on May 4 after they found their 2-year-old
and
3-year-old blue and lifeless in their cribs, CBS 2 News reported.
A preliminary coroner's report showed a "plant-like" substance in one of
the boy's stomach and intestine.
Examinations did not find the substance in the other boy, but it could
have
already passed through the child's digestive system, an El Segundo
police
detective told the Daily Breeze of Torrance.
Toxicological tests are still under way to determine what type of plant
was
found, but a large Oleander plant sits in the front yard a few homes
away
from the boys' residence.
Investigators suspected an Oleander plant because the mother of the
toddlers said she saw them chewing on the plant a few days before they
became ill, the television station said. But because the parents were in
touch with a pediatrician who didn't think the situation was serious,
they
thought everything was fine.
Foul play is not suspected in their deaths.
Deaths from poisonous plants are rare, but can happen to small children
even with small amounts. And surprisingly, the time of year plays a
role,
the television station said.
"For example, some plants, when they flower are much more poisonous then
when they're not flowering. In other plants, it's the roots or leaves
that
may be important," Dr. Michael Hirt told CBS 2. "So even small doses at
the
wrong time of the year can prove fatal.
"Make sure you label every plant, inside and out, with its proper
botantical name. That way, if there is an ingestion you can get on the
phone with the poison control center and give them accurate information,
and you can get an accurate antidote quickly," he said.
--------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 6/28/00 online edition of The
Los
Angeles Times newspaper:
Wednesday, June 28, 2000
News from El Segundo in the Los Angeles Times
Autopsy May Support Theory That Plants Poisoned 2 Boys
By JESSICA GARRISON, Special to The Times
One of the two El Segundo toddlers found dead in their beds last
month had
"a plant substance" in his stomach, an autopsy discovery that may
support
suggestions that he and his brother were fatally poisoned by eating
oleander
leaves, a police investigator said.
Authorities on Tuesday stressed, however, that they will not be
able to
identify the plant in the boy's stomach or whether it killed Alexei and
Peter
Wiltsey, ages 2 and 3, until toxicology tests are completed, which could
take
several weeks.
"We have not concluded what caused these children's deaths," said
Scott
Carrier, spokesman for the Los Angeles County coroner. "We have to wait
for the
results to come back."
The bodies of the two boys, adopted through a Russian orphanage in
September, were found in their cribs on the morning of May 4, three days
after
their mother reportedly noticed them with leaves in their mouths while
they
were playing in the frontyard, according to police. The mother, Shirley
Wiltsey, told investigators that she was unable to identify what plant
was
being eaten.
El Segundo Police Det. Ken Mulroney, who is leading the
investigation of
the deaths, said a preliminary coroner's report noted the plant material
in the
stomach and intestines of one of the boys. That strengthens Mulroney's
initial
suspicions that the boys died as a result of eating poisonous plants
such as
oleander.
"Everything points to it," Mulroney said Tuesday. "We're hoping
that's
what it is. It would make it no more than a tragic accident."
Mulroney said he did not know which boy had the half-inch of plant
in his
stomach.
Carrier, of the coroner's office, said he could not confirm any
details
from the autopsy results and declined to speculate about the cause of
the
deaths.
The boys, who were not biological brothers, were vomiting and
lethargic in
the days before their deaths.
But the parents had been in telephone contact with their
pediatrician and
the boys had appeared to be improving, detectives said.
After their deaths, a botanist from the Los Angeles County
Department of
Agriculture spent hours picking through vegetation in and around the
family's
yard.
The botanist, Jerry Turney, said that a few toxic plants were found
growing on the Wiltseys' property but that a big oleander bush two doors
down
was the most likely suspect because oleander is the most poisonous of
the
plants found in the neighborhood.
But Turney also said that death by oleander poisoning is extremely
rare.
It usually takes a massive amount of the plant to cause death, and
most
people, particularly children, simply could not eat that much because
the
leaves are so bitter, experts said.