2 Pasco Moms Charged In Drowning Deaths

Two Pasco County mothers face child neglect charges following separate drowning incidents involving toddlers. Image via Shutterstock

NEW PORT RICHEY, FL — The Pasco County Sheriff’s Office announced the arrest of two mothers on charges related to separate drownings last month.

Selina Ann Warner, 26, of New Port Richey was charged with child neglect, serious injury, on Thursday.

The case against Warner began to unfold on April 21 when her 2-year-old son climbed out of his crib while Warner was sleeping, an arrest report stated. The boy, the report said, let himself out of an unlocked door and entered a pond near his 9235 Yellow Lake Drive home. The child, the report noted, could not swim.

Deputies say Warner found the boy floating in the pond after she woke up. The child was taken to a local hospital, but died from “complications of drowning” on April 25, the arrest report said.

Several witnesses told deputies the boy had been found unattended in the neighborhood on several occasions prior to his drowning.

Warner was arrested at 11 a.m. Thursday, May 12, the report noted.

See Also:

• Hudson Toddler Found In Pond Near Home

The second drowning-related arrest involves the April 27 drowning of Clayton Foskey. The 2-year-old Hudson boy was found in a pond about 150 yards from his 12600 Chenwood Ave. home after an extensive search was conducted. Clayton’s mother, Roxann Potts, 27, was arrested on a child neglect charge Thursday in relation to that case.

The investigator in Potts’ case detailed a lengthy history of “culpable negligence” on her part, an arrest report stated.

Witnesses and neighbors told deputies they had seen the boy “wandering aimlessly in the neighborhood unsupervised” on multiple occasions over a two-week period prior to his death, the report said.

“The child was returned home by at least one neighbor 2 times in one day,” the report noted. Two of Clayton’s siblings also told deputies they “had also had to return their 2 year old brother back to his house on multiple occasions after finding him wandering outside unattended,” the report said.

Clayton's body was found by a Pasco County Sheriff's Office K9 team on the night of his drowning. A tiny footprint near the pond, an email from the agency said, led to the discovery.

Potts faces a single child neglect charge in her son’s death, the sheriff’s office said. She was arrested at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, the arrest report noted.

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