WHILE playing hide-and-seek with his brother, a 6-year-old boy drowned inside a water container in Barangay Umapad, Mandaue City.
When Luz Araneta came home and opened the drum, her son Jack Lester was already unconscious.
She rushed him to the Mandaue City District Hospital but the attending physician declared the child dead, said PO3 Roberto Neri.
According to the police investigation, Jack Lester and his brother Miguel, 5, were playing outside their home while their mother attended a school meeting.
After playing in the rain, the two brothers went inside their house and decided to play hide-and-seek.
Jack Lester decided to hide inside a plastic water drum with laundry soaked inside.
Police investigators believe the victim removed the soaked clothes and went inside the drum.
His brother Miguel then covered the container and left him there.
When their mother came home at 4 p.m. and saw the wet clothes outside the container, she asked Miguel who took them out.
Miguel told her Jack Lester did it.
Luz immediately opened the drum and found her son inside.
She cried for help so her neighbors could assist her in rushing the boy to Mandaue District Hospital. But it was too late.
Realizing there was no foul play in the death of Jack Lester, Neri said the family decided not to have the boy’s body examined.(OCP)