No charges filed in drowning
No charges will be filed in the death of a 3-year-old Merrittstown boy who drowned in a Redstone Township swimming pool last Friday. District Attorney Nancy D. Vernon said Monday that Coroner Dr. Phillip E. Reilly deemed the William Andrew Richards Jr.’s death accidental, and she agreed.
Vernon said Richards’ drowning was investigated over the weekend to determine if caretaker negligence led to his death. Nothing to support that worry came to light, said Vernon.
Richards was pronounced dead at 5 p.m. Friday after his body was taken from the pool of one of his grandmother’s Air Shaft Road neighbors.
Reilly said over the weekend that the boy climbed a ladder to the above-ground pool after he was apparently attracted by something floating inside. Investigators said the pool was not enclosed with a fence.
Vernon said the boy’s grandmother was watching several children at the time Richards wandered off. Also involved in the investigation were Children and Youth Services and state police.
Friends will be received in the Dearth Funeral Home, New Salem, Tuesday from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. Funeral services will be held Wednesday at 11 a.m. with the Rev. Paul Wilson officiating. Interment will take place in Acklin Cemetery, Hopewell Road, Brownsville.