Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 2, 1995 TAG: 9506020095
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The mother, Kimberly Rosser, "was a very good parent. She cherished her little girl - all of her children," said a neighbor, who declined to give her name.
"Some people are trying to make it out where she meant to leave the baby in the tub. But Kim didn't. I won't believe that she left that baby like that."
Rosser has two boys, about 7 and 8 years old.
Police received a report Tuesday that 1-year-old D'Keishaye Taowe Rosser of the 2700 block of Centre Avenue Northwest had been pronounced dead on arrival at Community Hospital of Roanoke Valley.
Police said members of Rosser's family told them the child was left in a bathtub with about six inches of water in it while her mother went to a neighbor's home.
When Rosser returned, she found D'Keishaye face down in the water.
But another neighbor said Thursday that Rosser told her she had not gone to a neighbor's home, but downstairs in her own apartment to get some soap.
"I told her `Please tell me you didn't leave like that,''' said the neighbor, who also asked that her name not be used. "She said that she only went downstairs to get the soap.
"Kim is a good person. I'm just sorry this happened."
An autopsy Wednesday confirmed that the child drowned. There were no signs of additional injuries or abuse.
The Roanoke Police Department is investigating the drowning as an accident. Child Protective Services - a division of the Roanoke Department of Social Services - and the Police Department's Youth Bureau also are involved in the investigation.
Corinne Gott, Roanoke superintendent of Social Services, said she did not know if Rosser had any history with the department. And if she did, "it's not something we would share with anybody," Gott said. "We can't give out information on a case under investigation."
In her 45 years in the social services field, "we've always had accidents in the care of children and always had misconducts in the care of children," Gott said.
But "I think the stress on families is probably higher than it's been, in all kinds of things - economics, survival, temptations of the street."
Gott said a study crossed her desk about a week ago that showed accidents are the No.1 cause of childhood deaths.
"It used to be disease was the highest, but those have been curtailed significantly," she said. "Accidental deaths have been going up, replacing some of those other once-considered-fatal conditions."
Accidents are not always caused by neglect, Gott said. "You see it on television where children are involved in accidents and people say, `Well, if the parents had done differently and not left the child unsupervised ... ' Was it willful or avoidable? We don't know."
Rosser lives in the Lansdowne Park public housing development. Devona Springer, information officer for the Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority, which manages the city's public housing, said Rosser has asked to move from Lansdowne to another development.
Neighbors said they understood why.
"All the baby's stuff is in there, her clothes, pictures of her," one neighbor said. Rosser and her other children have left the apartment and are staying with her mother.
Rosser, the neighbor said, "is taking it hard."
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB