Principal: 8-Year-Old Girl Died Of Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – The Hennepin County Sheriff's Office continues to investigate after an 8-year-old girl died over the weekend in a boating incident on Lake Minnetonka.
The 911 call came in Sunday afternoon from the dock behind COV restaurant in Wayzata Bay. Authorities responded and the child victim was taken to the Hennepin County Medical Center where she was pronounced dead.
The sheriff's department isn't releasing much of what led up to the death, but sources tell WCCO-TV that investigators are looking into whether carbon monoxide poisoning may have been a factor.
The autopsy from the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office is not yet complete, and officials have not released the name of the child.
However, according to the principal at Concord Elementary School in Edina, the school is mourning the loss of an 8-year-old student named Sophia Baechler.
The principal says Baechler's parents informed the school that their daughter died from carbon monoxide poisoning.
She was a second-grader at the school, where on Monday morning counselors joined Baechler's classmates to help them understand what happened.
The Center for Disease Control says there have been 180 carbon monoxide-related boating deaths in the U.S. since 2000.
