Boy Aged Four Found Dead In Tumble Dryer

Boy Aged Four Found Dead In Tumble Dryer

news.sky.com

A four-year-old boy has been found dead in a tumble dryer at his family home in Derbyshire.

(visit the link for the full news article)



[edit on 7/26/2010 by semperfortis]

A four-year-old boy has been found dead in a tumble dryer at his family home in Derbyshire.

The child was reported missing from the garden of his home on Northcliffe Road, Ashbourne, shortly after 10.30am on Monday morning.
A police helicopter was scrambled to search for the youngster, but he was found just under an hour later by his distraught mother and a police officer.
Detectives would not say whether the dryer was switched on when the boy's body was found.
A spokeswoman for Derbyshire Constabulary said no one has been arrested.
The spokeswoman added: "It's normal procedure to search the house to make sure whoever is missing isn't found there.
"They were searching outside with the force helicopter and they also searched inside the house and that's where they found him.
"He was found by his mother, who had a police officer with her at the time.
"She's distraught, as can be expected, and is receiving medical attention."
Details of the tragedy have been passed to the local coroner.
A post-mortem examination of the child's body is due to take place later and an inquest will be held into his death.

news.sky.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 7/26/2010 by semperfortis]

oo something went wrong there. sorry if any mods read this could you please edit it please

its funny how a 4 year old boy fitted into a tumble dryer, never mind closing the door behind him, it must of been a ig dryer, i think there might be more to this story. such a harsh death, RIP little boy, my thoughts are there for the family.

It is a sad thing when a parent has to bury their child. My heart goes out to them.

There still seems to be something that is not being told here though. My little brother use to climb into our front loading dryer when he was a toddler. Heck, he could even get his little tiny big wheel in it. The thing is, he could never fully close the dryer door...

Originally posted by Athink
its funny how a 4 year old boy fitted into a tumble dryer, never mind closing the door behind him, it must of been a ig dryer, i think there might be more to this story. such a harsh death, RIP little boy, my thoughts are there for the family.

Our dryer door only needs to be closed part way and it closes the rest itself. If I open the dryer door a quarter of the way it will snap back to the closed position. I'm assuming it has springs in there to help it do this. The boy may have suffocated in the dryer. My question is can the dryer not be opened from the inside by pushing on the door? If it can then I am doubtful of this being an accident. The only way he wouldn't be able to open the door from the inside is if he were unconcious or wanted to suffocate in there. Or of course if he was already dead when he was put in.

Originally posted by black cat
Our dryer door only needs to be closed part way and it closes the rest itself. If I open the dryer door a quarter of the way it will snap back to the closed position. I'm assuming it has springs in there to help it do this. The boy may have suffocated in the dryer. My question is can the dryer not be opened from the inside by pushing on the door? If it can then I am doubtful of this being an accident. The only way he wouldn't be able to open the door from the inside is if he were unconcious or wanted to suffocate in there. Or of course if he was already dead when he was put in.

The worse thing is, that the news statement says there not tell the public if the tumble dryer was turned on or not, of course it was switched on, otherwise the police would tell the news that it wasn't. Right????

Originally posted by Athink
its funny how a 4 year old boy fitted into a tumble dryer, never mind closing the door behind him, it must of been a ig dryer, i think there might be more to this story. such a harsh death, RIP little boy, my thoughts are there for the family.

A 4 year old would fit easily. I have a 4 year old, and he is big for his age, and he would fit easy enough. Also, if I am in a hurry, sometimes I toss a shirt in, slam the door, hit the start button and jump in the shower.

I once did this to my cat. I was in the shower and I thought shoes were in the dryer. I kept hearing it banging around, so I got out and checked, and I found a very fluffy, very dizzy, very hot cat, but luckily the cat survived.

This is a very sad, sad story. My prayers are with the boy and his mother. I am not an extremely religious person, but I do pray, and sometimes I feel my prayers are answered, and I once got an answer saying each person gets what they "ask for." Not in a bad way, but in the way as maybe a soul requests to come into this world for a specific experience. Maybe it is just to be born and loved and held for a moment and then pass on, maybe it is to suffer and experience great pain. Whatever the reason, sometimes seemingly terrible things happen for no good reason, but we have such a narrow perception of the universe. Maybe this tragedy was exactly what this mother and boy needed for their souls to grow and move on through the realms.

Wow, either some older brother or neighborhood kids must have done this as a joke, and it went bad.

If the kid was knocked unconscious, it's possible that he was simply bludgeoned to death by the tumbling nature of a limp body in a drier.

The kids probably thought it was funny and that the kid would simply kick the door open, but they didn't account for the possibility that the kid would immediately get knocked unconscious. So after pushing the start button, they ran away giggling.

Somebody pushed that button, and they will have to deal with that guilt for the rest of their lives.

[edit on 26-7-2010 by harrytuttle]

Originally posted by harrytuttle
Wow, either some older brother or neighborhood kids must have done this as a joke, and it went bad.

If the kid was knocked unconscious, it's possible that he was simply bludgeoned to death by the tumbling nature of a limp body in a drier.

The kids probably thought it was funny and that the kid would simply kick the door open, but they didn't account for the possibility that the kid would immediately get knocked unconscious. So after pushing the start button, they ran away giggling.

Somebody pushed that button, and they will have to deal with that guilt for the rest of their lives.

[edit on 26-7-2010 by harrytuttle]

Most, probably all dryers turn off as soon as the door is open. Even if the door closes right back up again the dryer will not start unless someone pushed a button to start it. It is possible he pulled the door shut and suffocated when he couldn't push it open but there should have been enough air and circulation in there to keep him alive for a while. Looks very suspicious to me too.

I know my tumble has to have the door shut and then I have to push the button again to start it.

But just regarding the door closing behind him that is quite possible, think about a 4 year old climbing in on his own, his feet could kick the door with enough force for it to bounce back and lock, the door has a fair amount of mass sometimes they have glass etc, it could easily lock on it's own.

Sad story.

Originally posted by Now_Then
I know my tumble has to have the door shut and then I have to push the button again to start it.

But just regarding the door closing behind him that is quite possible, think about a 4 year old climbing in on his own, his feet could kick the door with enough force for it to bounce back and lock, the door has a fair amount of mass sometimes they have glass etc, it could easily lock on it's own.

Sad story.

When I was a kid I once hid in my dryer playing hide and seek and closed the door too. However, the chance of me actually dying while hiding there without anybody noticing seem pretty small. Therefore, its really suspicious.

With you all the way "truthquest"

Call for Sherlock Holmes

It looks very much like an accident to me.

A kid could easily climb in and push the door out - which would cause it to swing shut - often these machines will stop if you open the door, but they have a timer which doesn't get turned off when you open it - shutting the door again will cause it to start.

I can easily see it would be very difficult to open the door again if you were going round and round - looks like a tragic accident.

a tumble dryer at 3,300 R.P.M., produces 1,340 G’ forces little bit more than a fighter jet but its not going to throw a 4 year old that weighs lets say 15 - 20 kg that fast

I'd say the dryer was most certainly in operation. Not too hard for me to picture a mother doing laundry and a child sneaking in to the dryer to play, not catching the mother's attention before she turned the dryer on.
It would be a challenge to kick the door open imo.

reply to post by Marrr


Yes but the excess weight would surely catch her attention. It would appear that the dryer has an imbalanced load.

How very sad that this young boy lost his life in such a terrible way. He must have been terrified before dying. I have seen clips on TV showing kids playing in the dryers at laundrymats. Kids get a lot of ideas from TV. He may have been hiding and because he was going around could't get the door open.

Rest in peace little one

I recall years ago a little girl suffocated/asphixiated (sp?) inside of a front load washer at a coin laundry while her mother talked outside on the payphone. The mother came back inside to find the little girl in the washer, and she couldn't open the machine due to safety thing on it that prevented it opening while it was filled with water. She finally busted the glass with a rock, but it was too late.

The girl's stepbrother had locked her in there and started the machine. There was a video camera in the place and his fingerprints were on the quarters. That was all that was reported about the case because the accused was a minor.

The family, except for the mother, was openly supportive of the boy. I imagine the couple has long since divorced.