Another child drowns at Weatherford

Weatherford experienced its second child drowning in less than a month Saturday when a 20-month-old toddler was found dead by his mother in an above-ground swimming pool.
The victim was Harley Kellems. Detective Lt. Chris Cote said police were notified of the incident at 5:52 p.m. Saturday.
He said the mother, Elizabeth Valencia, had put a movie on for the child and was going to take a shower. Before she got in the shower she went back to check on her son but couldn’t find him, so she called a neighbor to help look for him.
Cote said the child had climbed a ladder and fallen into the pool and was not able to get out. The officer said the depth of the water was estimated at 18 inches or less.
That death followed one June 9 when another child, also 20 months old, wandered away from adults and drowned in a relative’s swimming pool.
Actually, Cote said this death was the fourth of a small child at Weatherford in the past two or three months. The other victims were infants, probably between three and four months old. One was determined by the State Medical Examiner’s Office to have died of asphyxiation due to unsafe sleeping conditions, said Cote, and the M.E.’s report hasn’t been received yet on the other one.
Services for the Kellems toddler are scheduled at 10 a.m. Thursday at Life Fellowship Church in Weatherford.