An 8-year-old boy who was found last week in a washing machine filled with water is on life support with “death imminent,” officials said Monday.

The Castaic boy’s condition was pronounced Sunday at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Per protocol, as a result of the impending death, the sheriff’s department Homicide bureau has taken over the case from the Special Victims unit. Detectives from the bureau went to the hospital Sunday afternoon to learn more about the circumstances.

So far, the case is not considered a homicide but a death investigation that appears to be “just a tragic incident,” Lt. Eddie Hernandez said.


Detectives will re-interview the child’s parents and the other children living in the house before presenting any case to the district attorney for consideration, Hernandez said.

The child had been hospitalized since Wednesday, when the boy’s father discovered him in the top-loading machine, which was filled with water.

The boy’s father, who had been working in the yard of their home in the 30500 block of Pansy Court in Castaic while the boy’s mother was at a store, pulled the boy from the machine and dialed 911, department officials said.

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Twitter: @emfoxhall



emily.foxhall@latimes.com