A Lakeway woman has been charged in the 2023 drowning death of a 6-year-old, police said.
Officers arrested Chelsye Reagan Witcher, 41, in Austin on Friday morning, according to a news release from the Lakeway Police Department. She was charged with injury to a child, a first-degree felony, and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence, a third-degree felony. Officials said Witcher was planning to adopt the girl, but did not provide details or say how long the girl was living with the family.
Police responded to a report of a drowning at a home along Sunrise Ridge Cove around 2:30 p.m. on Nov. 1, 2023, according to the release. It said Witcher called EMS and reported that the child was found face-down and seizing in the bathtub.
When police, paramedics and firefighters arrived, they found Witcher administering cardio-pulmonary resuscitation to the child, according to the arrest affidavit.
Witcher told officers she had been giving the girl a bath and then left to do laundry, the affidavit said. It said Witcher said she then heard a thumping noise coming from the bathroom.
"Responding officers noticed that Chelsye formed a fist with her hand and hit it against her other hand when referring to the thumping noise," the affidavit said.
It said Witcher told officers she went to check on the child and found her fully submerged in the bathtub and convulsing, the document said. Witcher also told police, according to the affidavit, that after she pulled the girl out of the tub, the girl continued to convulse in Witcher's arms for 30 seconds before going limp. Witcher said she then began administering CPR, the affidavit said.
Before the child had taken a bath, she had eaten breakfast and played with puzzles and acted "fine," Witcher first told police, according to the affidavit. She said the girl had a history of seizures during infancy but was not on medicine and had no medical conditions, it said.
Witcher later told police that the girl had been "defiant" while playing with puzzles and had urinated on herself, which is why the child was taking a bath in the middle of the day, the affidavit said. It said Witcher told police the water level in the bathtub was 4 to 5 inches from the top when she filled it.
It said the girl was flown to Dell Children's Hospital in critical condition. She died the next day at the hospital, police said.
The child had showed signs of acute renal failure, acute liver injury, respiratory failure and an anoxic brain injury, the affidavit said. Anoxic brain injury happens when the brain is completely deprived of oxygen. An autopsy report later showed that the girl had drowned as the result of a homicide, the affidavit said.
It said Austin school district records showed no significant disciplinary records for the girl before Witcher withdrew her from school in December 2022.
During the investigation, police discovered that Witcher's home had seven Ring cameras. Video from the cameras showed inconsistencies between Witcher's statements and what was shown on the cameras, police said.
One video showed the girl was locked in her bedroom for several hours on Nov. 1 with a two-minute bathroom break, the affidavit said. She did not receive food from the time she woke up at 7:05 a.m. until she was told to run on a treadmill at 1:22 p.m., according to the affidavit.
The video showed that the girl tried to get Witcher's attention to go to the bathroom but when Witcher finally checked on her two hours later, the child had urinated on herself, the document said.
Witcher became angry and forced the girl to run on a treadmill before getting into the bathtub, police said. A camera near the bathroom recorded the sound of the girl crying in the bathroom during the bath and Witcher yelling "I'm gonna hold you down," the affidavit said.
It said Witcher also told the girl to "lay all the way down in the water or underneath it" and then said to the child, "That's why I held you down."
The child began to whimper while Witcher was seen on camera throughout the home, leaving the girl alone in the bathtub, the affidavit said. The girl's cries became fainter until a "distinct echoing thud" was heard on the video, according to the affidavit.
A camera in Witcher's bedroom captured video of her cellphone, police said. The video showed that the cellphone was receiving a live video feed from the camera in the bathroom, the affidavit said. The feed from the bathroom showed the child face-down in the water for 41 seconds, according to the affidavit.
It said that when Witcher returned to the bathroom and noticed the child under water, she waited 15 minutes to call 911.
Witcher's three biological children later told investigators that Witcher kept the 6-year-old girl on a diet because she was "chubby," the affidavit said. It said the girl was not allowed to eat with the rest of the family in the dining room and ate meals in her bedroom.
The children also said there was a camera in the bathroom so Witcher could watch the child. Police did not find the camera when they first responded to the scene, according to the affidavit.
Investigators also discovered that Witcher had researched "fainting in the bathtub" after the girl died, the document said. Investigators later found a record from Dell Children's Medical Group on May 15, 2018, that showed there were no seizure concerns about her, the affidavit said.
Investigators later met with Witcher at the Acorns to Oaks day care where she worked, the affidavit said. It said she confessed to them that she held the child's body and head underwater in the bathtub.
Witcher also told police the girl was standing up when Witcher grabbed her, pulled her into the bathtub "very forcefully" and held her down for "just like a second" before letting her go, according to the affidavit.
Witcher said she did this because she was upset and wanted the girl to comply, the affidavit said. It said Witcher also stated she "lost her cool" that day and made a mistake out of frustration.
When officers asked her what happened to the camera that was in the bathroom, Witcher said she removed it while speaking with 911 and later hid it in the trunk of her car, the affidavit said.
Police seized the camera from the trunk of Witcher's car on Jan. 9, the affidavit said. The camera showed that footage in it was deleted on Nov. 2, 2023.
Witcher was being held Friday in the Travis County Jail. Her bail had not yet been set, jail records showed.