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Charges Filed In Drowning Of 2-Year-Old

WARREN, Pa. — Charges have been filed in connection with an August drowning in Warren County that claimed the life of a 2-year-old child.

And one of the accused is the child’s mother.

Warren-based Pennsylvania State Police filed felony child endangerment charges against Nichol V. Barrett, 25, identified as the deceased child’s mother, and her husband, Richard Duane Barrett, 54.

Both reside at 3435 Conewango Ave., according to court records. They also both face three charges — one count each of first-degree felony endangering the welfare of children and two counts of second-degree felony endangering the welfare of children.

The incident started with a call to police from a Schumann Road residence, approximately 45 minutes before the drowning was reported.

A resident reported “finding two small children and a dog in Hatch Run Creek, a short distance from the Conewango River,” police allege in the affidavit. The resident reported that the children — a 5-year-old girl and 4-year-old male — told her that their “mother is gone” and that their mother “went away.”

Troopers responded to the scene and removed the children from the creek where they were then taking to safety at a nearby property.

At 2:51 p.m., police say a call was forwarded to state police from Nichol Barrett.

“During this phone call,” police allege, Barrett “reported finding her daughter floating face down in Hatch Run Creek.”

Troopers attempted CPR but the child was pronounced dead at Warren General Hospital and an autopsy determined the cause of death to be drowning.

Both defendants were interviewed briefly by police on the day of the incident and both said “they had been on their phones either with a doctor’s office or checking on a job application.”

They told police, per the affidavit, that there was only a “5-6 minute time frame” where they were “not physically seeing the children,” per the affidavit. Both indicated that “they observed the three children playing at the back of the residence on or around a playset just prior to the phone calls.”

Police subsequently continued the investigation and obtained a search warrant for cell phone records from both defendants. That warrant, police allege, revealed that both were on their cell phone “several times throughout the day as provided by them” to troopers in the interview.

After an examination of the cell phone records, interview and 911 calls, police arranged a second interview with both defendants “as more information was needed to clarify come of the issues with the timeline and cell phone records.”

That interview occurred on Sept. 11 at the Starbrick state police barracks and lasted nearly an hour and a half.

The defendants, police state, “provided … a hand-written timeline” they “had put together from their cell phones and included what actions they took after determining the three children were not in the house or yard.”

Police in the affidavit then summarize what Nichol Barrett stated: That she was on her cellphone to a doctor in Russell and “she had observed the three children just prior to being on the phone and after the phone call they realized the children were gone.” Nichol Barrett told police it was a short phone call.

Police then explained an issue with the five to six minute timeframe and where the other two children were found, roughly 1/5th of a mile away.

“There is no physical way the children were able to get from the defendant’s residence barefoot — all three children were without shoes on — through the dry and wet creek bed with rough rocks, briers, limbs and such in/around the creek,” police state in the affidavit.

Nichol Barrett then told police she was on her computer attempting to download documents for an online school for which she was trying to register her oldest daughter, according to the affidavit, and told police “she had prepared lunch for the children around 12:15 hours with the children finishing lunch and going outside directly after lunch.” She “confirmed and agreed the children would have been playing outside around 12:30 hours” and also told police “she was also attending to the needs of her 2-month-old child.”

She said Richard Barrett was “on his phone and she assumed he was doing online job applications and she didn’t want to bother him or keep him from finding a job.”

After the discussion about timelines and distance from the residence, police indicate in the affidavit several statements Nichol Barrett made.

“I am admitting if that is what happened, I am at fault for it and I’m wrong for it. I lost track of time and let my daughter go for 40 minutes, so ya, apparently, I’m bad. … I shouldn’t have been on my phone trying to get my daughter into school while my kids were outside. If they were gone for that long, it’s my bad and I apologize for it. I am going to be paying for it for the rest of my life.”

Online court records indicate District Justice Laura Bauer arraigned both defendants on Thursday afternoon. Those records also state that both were released on $50,000 unsecured bond.

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