DA: W. Pa. boy could have moved septic tank lid
The Associated Press
September 15, 2009, 8:56 AM / 0 comments
A district attorney says a 4-year-old boy could have moved the lid off a western Pennsylvania septic tank where he was found dead earlier this month.
Beaver County District Attorney Anthony Berosh says the tank's lid was a 14-pound sheet of corrugated metal, not a heavy, dense manhole cover as previously described by state police.
Autopsy results on the boy, Wyatt Smitsky, are pending further tests. The boy was found dead in the septic tank on Sept. 5 on property near his home in Greene Township, about 25 miles northwest of Pittsburgh.
Berosh says authorities still aren't sure if the boy's death was a homicide, the result of negligence or an accident.
The boy was playing with two young sisters when he went missing, prompting an 18-hour search by hundreds of volunteers.