EAST MONTPELIER, Vt. – Prosecutors say no charges will be filed in the drowning death of a Vermont toddler who was in foster care.
Two-year-old Alexander James Lowell-Henry was found unconscious July 5 in a family pool in East Montpelier and later died.
He was in the custody of the Vermont Department of Children and Families and living with a foster family at the time.
The Washington County state's attorney's office said Thursday that it would be unlikely to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime occurred, given the evidence and the current state of the law.
The office calls Alexander's death a "preventable tragedy" that would not likely have happened if the caretaker had adequately supervised him and ensured that proper fencing had been installed around the pool.