Toddler drowned in washing machine

At 21 months old, Ollie Hebb was his mother’s helper on laundry day, climbing atop a bin so he could toss clothes into a top-loading washer.

On the morning he went missing for a few minutes, Tiffany Hebb went through her house calling for him but got no answer.

She found the toddler in the washing machine, submerged in a full tub. He died a day later, on March 24.

His mother, recently moved to Oregon from Utah, says she never thought the washing machine would be a danger to her child and is telling her story to make parents aware of the danger.

The Consumer Products Safety Commission, a federal agency, says such deaths are rare — two children under the age of five died in washing machines between 2005 and 2009, according to a recent report.

‘I ran through my whole house, calling his name and couldn’t find him anywhere,’ Mrs Hebb told the Deseret News, ‘not ever thinking that he would be in my washer.’

Tiffany and Chris Hebb will probably not face charges, according Michael Rouches, spokesman for police in Hillsboro, Oregon.

‘Detectives don’t believe that this was an intentional crime or that anyone stuck the baby in the washer,’ Mr Roushes said on Monday.

‘We have the DA’s office look into it, just to make sure there wasn’t a degree of negligence.’

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