A criminal investigation was opened after a 12-year-old child died in a sauna in the city of Polevskoy, in Russia’s Sverdlovsk region. The investigation is being conducted on suspicion of causing death by negligence.
Aleksandr Shulga, a senior aide to the regional head of the Investigative Committee, said a forensic examination had been ordered to determine the exact cause of death.
Initial assessments indicated that the child may have been poisoned by carbon monoxide that accumulated inside the sauna because the stove damper was closed. The sauna had allegedly been heated by the child’s grandmother.
The child’s mother found the child and alerted emergency medical teams. Despite their intervention, the child could not be saved.
Valeri Gorelykh, a spokesperson for the regional police department, said the family in which the child died was an intact family and was not registered for preventive monitoring. It was also stated that the child’s legal representatives had not previously been held administratively liable for failing to fulfill their parental responsibilities.