CHASE LAUENROTH - 10 Months - Lincoln NE

A 10-month-old child was found dead Saturday morning at a home in rural Lincoln, the Lancaster County Sheriff's Office said.

The boy was found about 10 a.m. with his head in the toilet and he was not breathing, the Sheriff's Office said.

He was pronounced dead at 11:33 a.m. at Bryan LGH West Medical Center.

Sheriff Terry Wagner said in a statement that an autopsy was scheduled and that
the investigation was continuing.

The Lancaster County Sheriff's Office has released the name of a
baby who died Saturday after being found with his head in the toilet.
Ten-month-old Chase Lauenroth was found with his head in the
toilet and not breathing on Saturday morning.
His father, Nicholas Lauenroth, 21, found the child and called authorities.
His mother, Karen Bryant, 20, was at work when the incident occurred about 10 a.m.
LSO, Lincoln Fire and Rescue and Southwest Rural Fire were
called to the house on West O Street near the Pla Mor Ballroom.
EMTs performed CPR and rescue breathing before the child was
transported to Bryan LGH Medical Center West.
Chase was pronounced dead at 11:33 a.m.
An autopsy has been scheduled to determine the cause and manner
of death. Test results are expected by Tuesday.
Authorities say the case is still under investigation.

New details released on a story that has a
lot of people talking. A father finds his son with his head hanging in
the toilet. The baby dies. The boy was just 10-months-old and learning
how to walk.

Autopsy results show no evidence of foul play
in the baby's death. The investigation is not over. Final toxicology
results are expected in three weeks.

Chase Lauenroth died at the hospital. He was
10-months-old. "Thirty inches tall is how tall the baby is and he was at
that stage in life where he was crawling a lot and would pull himself
up on furniture and other things that can support him and attempt to
walk," said Lancaster County Sheriff Terry Wagner.

The Lancaster County Sheriff won't say what
the dad, 21-year-old Nicholas Lauenroth was doing before finding his
child. The baby's mother was at work when the incident happened. "It
appears he reached in to play or whatever and he lost his balance," said
Wagner.

Even though Sheriff Wagner says he's never
seen something like this before in Lancaster County, he says toilet
drowning's are a secret threat nationwide. The Consumer Product Safety
Commission reports nearly 500 babies drown at home each year. Babies can
drown in just inches of water. You can purchase toilet locks for only
$5 at the hardware store. It could be the difference between life and
death for your child. "We've all looked retrospectively at who hasn't
fallen asleep while taking care of their toddler or not paid attention
or lost track of their toddler for a few minutes and these things happen
in a twinkling in an eye," said Wagner.

No word on if charges will be filed.

Is this 'Daddy'?

http://www.myspace.com/smoke_yo

kiwimom wrote:Is this 'Daddy'?

http://www.myspace.com/smoke_yo

---Most likely. Kinda weird with all the skulls as a backdrop. Get the feeling this fella likes to smoke ganga.

TomTerrific0420 wrote:

kiwimom wrote:Is this 'Daddy'?

http://www.myspace.com/smoke_yo

---Most likely. Kinda weird with all the skulls as a backdrop. Get the feeling this fella likes to smoke ganga.

http://www.myspace.com/takeatriptomysoul
'mom'

http://www.myspace.com/bryant4life
grandma

cindmo wrote:http://www.myspace.com/bryant4life
grandma

http://www.ketv.com/r/24907668/detail.html
LINCOLN, Neb. -- Initial autopsy reports show no signs of foul play in connection with the death of a baby whose father found him with his head in a toilet in the west Lincoln home Friday.

Ten-month-old Chase Lauenroth died at a Lincoln hospital Saturday morning.

Lancaster County Sheriff Terry Wagner said investigators are still waiting for toxicology tests from the autopsy before making their final determination in the case.

cindmo wrote:

cindmo wrote:http://www.myspace.com/bryant4life
grandma

http://www.ketv.com/r/24907668/detail.html
LINCOLN, Neb. -- Initial autopsy reports show no signs of foul play in connection with the death of a baby whose father found him with his head in a toilet in the west Lincoln home Friday.

Ten-month-old Chase Lauenroth died at a Lincoln hospital Saturday morning.

Lancaster County Sheriff Terry Wagner said investigators are still waiting for toxicology tests from the autopsy before making their final determination in the case.

http://journalstar.com/lifestyles/announcements/obituaries/article_3f9adce0-500e-56f4-8469-ca2f2696cc97.html


Chase Alexander Lauenroth, 9 1/2 months, of Lincoln, passed away Saturday, September 4, 2010. He was born November 18, 2009 to Karen "Kitty" Bryant and Nicholas Lauenroth. Chase was an energetic, curious little boy who bubbled with happiness and laughter. He loved swimming, tractors and Cheetos. His beautiful smile and contagious laugh always brought great joy to his family. Chase will be greatly missed by all those lucky enough to have been part of his life.

Chase was preceded in death by his great grandfather: Gene Melichar, and great uncle: John Lauenroth.

Those left to cherish his memory are his loving parents: Nick and Kitty, grandparents: Kathleen "Kat" Bryant, and Dan and LeeAnn Lauenroth; aunt: Ashlie Lauenroth; uncle: Jason Lauenroth; great grandparents: Julie Melichar, Gerald and Jeanne Lauenroth, and Jesse and Joyce Crutchfield; godparents: Chad Pleasant and Sherry Hasty-Clark; many great uncles and aunts, and cousins.

A celebration of life service will be held Friday, 1 p.m., at the Pleasant Dale United Methodist Church. Family will greet friends Thursday, 7-9 p.m. at Kuncl Funeral Home, Crete. Interment, Pleasant Dale Cemetery. Memorials in care of the family. Condolences may be left at lincolnjournalstar.com.

Thanks cindmo for keeping an eye on this case and providing us with a pic of Chase.
Something seems weird to me. Considering the height of the baby, the height of the toilet and the depth of the water under the rim I am not seeing him accidentally lift himself up and over to drown.
My suspicions lean toward something more sinister...

kiwimom wrote:Is this 'Daddy'?

http://www.myspace.com/smoke_yo

cindmo wrote:

TomTerrific0420 wrote:

kiwimom wrote:Is this 'Daddy'?

http://www.myspace.com/smoke_yo

---Most likely. Kinda weird with all the skulls as a backdrop. Get the feeling this fella likes to smoke ganga.

http://www.myspace.com/takeatriptomysoul
'mom'

cindmo wrote:http://www.myspace.com/bryant4life
grandma

Who are you to judge?! I mean are you seriously making fun of someone who just lost their 10 month old child? How immature are you guys?! Yes, negligence. Like the Sheriff stated, what parent doesn't fall asleep, leave their child alone for a few moments.. No need for excuses here though. The baby passed away in this case. I feel so sorry for them because they will have to live with this for the rest of their lives. And morons like you critique their parenting is just outrageuos. Do you have children? I don't. I wouldn't I say these people are bad parents based on their myspace, facebook, twitter page. People express themselves in different ways. And to set things straight, baby's are top heavy. A baby's head is proportionally larger than the rest of their body due to the skull cannot grow as fast as the rest of the bones in its body so it gets a head start(no pun intended). With that being said, it is very likely that the baby pulled himself up, got off-balance and fell head first into the toilet. With a 10 month old baby, always moving and exploring, it would only take 1 minute for that baby to get into a dangerous situation and die or get injured. It only takes a few seconds for a baby to drown. A baby's body doesn't know how to protect itself from inhaling water, therefore drowning with even the slightest bit of water. I feel like I just gave a lesson on this subject. Anyways, be careful what you say. Don't express your opinions about a child's death being 'something more'. The autopsy most always provides the evidence to convict.

Another thing, the baby is/was 30 inches tall. Toilet height's generally are 16"-18" tall. google it or better yet measure your toilet and measure your baby and see if its possible. A little less than half of his body was above the toilet bowl. It's a horrible accident. It could have been prevented but it wasn't. It happened, no bringing Chase back now.

Welcome James21. I think that our forum has seen so many terrible, heinous, and deliberate acts to hurt children, that our minds quickly jump to the horrendous results that too many children receive. We strive to see that the children get the voice and justice that they need.

We welcome families and loved ones who sign on to have a dialogue with us! It certainly can help clear up any misconceptions and let us know the other side to the story that the Main Stream Media does not always know or report. You have listed some very likely contributing factors to having a child fall into a toilet. The numbers would change depending upon whether or not the toilet seat is up or down and the size and shape of the toilet and water level. Children that age climb, crawl, pull themselves up and are usually unsteady as they begin to learn to walk, often top-heavy as you describe. We would be relieved to know that this was a child who was loved beyond measure! It is a terrible tragedy to lose a child unexpectedly and when they are treasured by their families, broken hearts are left all over the place.

The www.ketv.com site video says that the exam shows no signs of foul play and they are awaiting results before they can close out the case. (Bold is mine.) http://www.ketv.com/video/24915296/detail.html

That waiting can be tremendously stressful. I hope that you are able to cope with this tragedy and have some support to help you carry on. Please feel free to come back here to talk more with us. You can give us a view that we oftentimes miss and a message to parents of little ones to consider this as something that can tragically happen.

You have my prayers sent out in your behalf and for the family.

Well, welcome to J4C james21!
Thanks for your input. Perhaps it's my nature having posted so many stories these past few years that involve heinous acts that sometimes my mind runs off faster than my tape can measure.
Sure it is possible, and according to you, that's the way it happened.
For now, we can accept that as the most likely cause and like you say, we'll just wait for the final autopsy results and get a confirmation on the toxicology analysis from the coroner.

The Lancaster County Sheriff won't say what
the dad, 21-year-old Nicholas Lauenroth was doing before finding his
child.

I do find this a bit unusual. You seem to know that the father was asleep. Was this the case?

No one, I can assure you, would use this blog to make fun of parents who have lost a child. We do however use it to pursue justice on behalf of children who are abducted, neglected, abused and murdered.
Like LE, we sometimes will try and get a feel for the parents lifestyles by viewing their public social web pages. It was very telling in the case against ESOTD and I am certain it will be a prosecution point of order at her trial in the spring.

No, there is no bringing Chase back now. If indeed it happened as you said then more people will now know about this danger. Just because I never heard of it doesn't mean it is not a 500 child a year problem.

James21, you will not find many rare men like Tom who freely donates his time to keep up with the list of Missing and Exploited Children and follows their cases. It is the second of the thinner but widest blue bars down the page (you may have to scroll down a little) labeled "Missing and Exploited Children" that Tom has built from the ground up.

http://www.justice4caylee.org/forum.htm

Scrolling through pages and pages and pages of names of abused and lost children is almost too much too handle. In fact, Tom now has helpers because the job has become so big. He has a heart of gold and we can see that you, too, have a big heart for a small baby! Thank-you for sharing your experience and please come back and give us an update.

Poster's Note: I found another story with a similar situation but with a much happier ending.
I place it here only to back up what james21 posted earlier.

MESA, Ariz. - Most of the time when we report on drownings and near drownings, it's because a child somehow found their way into a pool. But on Monday, paramedics were called to a home in Mesa after a child nearly drowned in the home's bathroom - not in the bathtub though. The little girl fell into the toilet. The Mesa Fire Department and Cardon Children's Hospital are using this case as a chance to remind people to take a look around their home and see if there's something you could be doing to make your child safer. A hospital is the very last place anyone wants to have to rush to, but a frantic father found himself there with his daughter. "It doesn't all come back to swimming pools and canals..again it can be a bucket of water and a toilet," said Mesa Fire Dept. Captain Forrest Smith. The little girl is okay, but it's a reminder to all of us, especially parents, that your house can be a danger zone in ways you never imagined. On Monday morning in Mesa, the toilet turned out to be danger to a 1-year-old found face first in the toilet bowl. "With the little kids their heads are huge..they're so heavy their neck muscles are weak, so once a kid gets his head down, they can't get back up," said Smith. A popular way of childproofing is to for people to get on their hands and knees and crawl through their homes, giving them a child's eye view. You may see dangers down there you would otherwise miss.

James21, Chase died either due to negligence or he was upended into the toilet on purpose. There would be no evidence so we will probably never know. To try to decide what may have happened it is useful to look at what sort of person his father was. Was he a hardworking, responsible adult or was he an immature drugy and useless prat too busy getting high or drunk to watch the baby? Hence it is tempting to see if they are on facebook and try to get a broad picture of what sort of person he might be. If you'd like to read round this site you will see it is littered with cases of children dying at the hands of 21 year old fathers or boyfriends of the mother who were left in charge of the child.
My focus and sympathy is for the children who die or are abused. This was a preventable death so it serves a purpose to talk about it so it doesn't happen again. And no, I have never fallen asleep while I needed to be watching a 10 month old. But for those who may need to be told - never go to sleep when you're looking after a small child unless they are secure in their cot, and never put a child head first down a toilet. There you go.

Kiwi- you always know the right things to say!

I agree with the negligence. Both of Chase's parents are hard working. They don't have much but they what they need to get by. No they aren't drug dealers or alcoholics. I'm not sure what grandma does, but I can only assume she tries to help out as any Parent would. I don't know these people all that well. But I'm not going to argue about what happened. That's not my job. Kiwimom, are you in law enforcement? any kind of schooling in forensics, lab work? work with the evidence in any manner? anything associated with law? or are you just someone with an opinion that doesn't mean a thing? Your the type of person that would bitch about every little mistake someone has made cause your shit don't stink. I've never fallen asleep with my 10 month old ever you say. I bet that might be the case. But how many times have you left your child unattended for more than 1 minute? Wait, I bet you NEVER have right?! Cause your perfect! You do everything by the book. I can assure you that his parents would have never, ever do any harm to Chase!

I want you all to close your eyes and imagine yourself, 20-21 years of age with a 10 month old baby. I want you to keep your eyes closed and think about the time that you ran into the next room to grab something or turn the heat down on a pan in the kitchen. Any time that you may have left your child unattended. Walk back into the room where you left your 10 month old. He/she is not there. Some of you won't think twice, others will. You wonder around the house looking anxiously. You walk by the bathroom and your child is head first in the toilet. You panic and your heart hits the floor! Grab your child, no pulse. No breathing. Fighting through tears and are still panicking. Grab the phone and call 911. You cry out HELP as loud as you possibly can. I want you to imagine what you would say after, if anything. If you could even speak at all.... The person on the other line is your hope! They can't physically help you, but your so scared. They start walking you through trying to save your child's life. Nothing is working. Although 99% of you would have given up mentally, your still physically fighting to save your first and only child. You repeat everything the operator told you until the ambulance arrives. They push you aside and attempt to revive your child.

I want you to open your eyes and imagine what Nick must have felt. All the pain, all the tears, the hurt. don't get me wrong here. I'm not sticking up for this kid. I think this is negligence. I just want you to feel a little pain and maybe shed a tear or 2 thinking that just happened to you. He'll get what's coming to him. And unless you have anything to do with this case, such as a detective, your just another person with an opinion. Maybe I'm wrong about this site. Maybe some of you are in some sort of Human Service career or something alike. I am Military Police. I do the same job as a 'civilian' cop in the military. I want to know what kind impact you have to this country besides voting. What do you do for your community, city, state, country? Post your opinions on forums?

i can't speak for everyone on this forum, but for myself - we try to bring publicity to cases involving children that have been harmed in some way - either through negligence, murder, etc. we are an open forum and we welcome opinions. while we do have members who are in LE, the medical field, the legal field, social work, etc. we do not disclose the personal background of any member for their own protection.

our forum has a track record of successfully reuniting runaways with their parents through the justice system and many parents of murdered children come to our forum for help in publicizing their cases. not every case gets the media attention of a "kyron horman" or "alicia debolt" or "caylee anthony".

we welcome opinions - and may agree to disagree on occasion.

In my line of work one thing we try to do is educate the public about child safety. One very important lesson to learn from this, is the importance of childproofing a home, for the moments when a parent or chidcare provider turns their attention away from the child. James, if you could bring this to the attention of your community, you would be doing a fine community service. Perhaps your unit could sponsor a child safety awareness day in the community.Very often a company will donate an item to a cause such as these child safety latches for toilets. Children are top heavy and when they fall into a toilet they cannot pull themselves out. I sponsor many of these events at day cares, schools and fairs, and in my community, law enforcement and first responders visit schools and educate others. It would be an outstanding thing for you to do, and you may save a child's life.
http://www.mypreciouskid.com/toilet-lock.html

kiwimom wrote:James21, Chase died either due to negligence or he was upended into the toilet on purpose. There would be no evidence so we will probably never know. To try to decide what may have happened it is useful to look at what sort of person his father was. Was he a hardworking, responsible adult or was he an immature drugy and useless prat too busy getting high or drunk to watch the baby? Hence it is tempting to see if they are on facebook and try to get a broad picture of what sort of person he might be. If you'd like to read round this site you will see it is littered with cases of children dying at the hands of 21 year old fathers or boyfriends of the mother who were left in charge of the child.
My focus and sympathy is for the children who die or are abused. This was a preventable death so it serves a purpose to talk about it so it doesn't happen again. And no, I have never fallen asleep while I needed to be watching a 10 month old. But for those who may need to be told - never go to sleep when you're looking after a small child unless they are secure in their cot, and never put a child head first down a toilet. There you go.

james21 wrote:I want you all to close your eyes and imagine yourself, 20-21 years of age with a 10 month old baby. I want you to keep your eyes closed and think about the time that you ran into the next room to grab something or turn the heat down on a pan in the kitchen. Any time that you may have left your child unattended. Walk back into the room where you left your 10 month old. He/she is not there. Some of you won't think twice, others will. You wonder around the house looking anxiously. You walk by the bathroom and your child is head first in the toilet. You panic and your heart hits the floor! Grab your child, no pulse. No breathing. Fighting through tears and are still panicking. Grab the phone and call 911. You cry out HELP as loud as you possibly can. I want you to imagine what you would say after, if anything. If you could even speak at all.... The person on the other line is your hope! They can't physically help you, but your so scared. They start walking you through trying to save your child's life. Nothing is working. Although 99% of you would have given up mentally, your still physically fighting to save your first and only child. You repeat everything the operator told you until the ambulance arrives. They push you aside and attempt to revive your child.

I want you to open your eyes and imagine what Nick must have felt. All the pain, all the tears, the hurt. don't get me wrong here. I'm not sticking up for this kid. I think this is negligence. I just want you to feel a little pain and maybe shed a tear or 2 thinking that just happened to you. He'll get what's coming to him. And unless you have anything to do with this case, such as a detective, your just another person with an opinion. Maybe I'm wrong about this site. Maybe some of you are in some sort of Human Service career or something alike. I am Military Police. I do the same job as a 'civilian' cop in the military. I want to know what kind impact you have to this country besides voting. What do you do for your community, city, state, country? Post your opinions on forums?

Are you kidding me?