Mother accused of drowning daughter in bathtub

HOUSTON According to court documents, Griselda Perez put her 5-month-old daughter in the bathtub after she became sticky while eating a popsicle on the night of August 14. Perez put her daughter in a plastic baby tub inside the regular tub. She left the water running in the bath and went to the kitchen to cook dinner and download music.

Perez later sent her 6-year-old son to the bathroom to check on the baby and the son found the baby bobbing up and down in the water. The son said he removed a hair scrunchie from the bathtub that was stuck in the drain.

Perez told investigators that only six minutes had passed from the time she left the bathroom to the time she sent her son to check on the baby. However, investigators later recreated the incident with the defendant's assistance and found that it would have taken considerably more than 20 minutes for the bathtub to overflow at that rate.

Emergency crews responded to the scene and found the baby with no heartbeat. She was transported to the hospital where personnel stated the baby had suffered serious brain damage. She died eight days later and the cause of death was found to be drowning.

Perez, 27, is charged with injury to a child and is being held on $100,000 bond.