Woman Whose Child Drowned In Hurricane Florence Floodwaters, Charged With Involuntary Manslaughter

A woman whose infant child died after getting swept away in the floodwaters during Hurricane Florence in Union County, Charlotte, North Carolina, was charged Monday.

Union County sheriff's dispatcher Ashley Rushing said Dazia Ideah Lee, 20, was charged of involuntary manslaughter and a misdemeanor count of driving on a closed or unopened highway, and she received a summons Monday, ordering her to appear before the court Nov. 20. It was not immediately known if Lee had an attorney.

“The tragic death of this child and the circumstances surrounding this case are heartbreaking. We continue to pray for all those suffering as a result of this child’s death. However, after a very thorough investigation and taking all facts into consideration and applying the law, we feel that these charges are appropriate," Union County Sheriff Eddie Cathey said, Charlotte Observer reported.

After launching an investigation into the death of Lee’s one-year-old son, Kaiden Lee-Welch, the police found the mother had drove her car into highway NC 218 on Sept. 16, which was barricaded when the hurricane tore through the state.

Lee-Welch was inside the vehicle when the accused was driving. As she tried to drive across a bridge over Richardson Creek, her car was swept off the road and eventually came to rest among a cluster of trees and the vehicle started getting filled by water.

Although she managed to get her son out of the car, she said she lost her grip on him as she tried to make her way through the floodwaters.

"I was trying to do everything I could. It just got worse. When water gets in your car, you start to panic," she said, ABC 11 reported. "It just spun us around in circles and I knew there was no way to get back on land because it just took us that fast."

Lee added she did everything she could to save her child.

"I was holding his hand, trying to hold him, trying to pull him up," she told the TV station. "I couldn't hold on anymore and he let go." The infant’s body was recovered by law enforcement officials the next day.

The accused also denied having deliberately harmed her infant son as she believed the route she took was not barricaded. “I saw people coming in and out, so that's when I thought, I was about to detour, but I stopped. I saw the cars coming in and out... thought it was safe,” she said.

However, Cathey confirmed the road taken by Lee was barricaded.

“I can tell you that the barricades were up there,” he said. “Whether someone else moved those barricades and she drove around ‘em, I can’t say.”