Second girl dies after Los Angeles mom's alleged drowning attack

By: Crimesider Staff
Topics: Daily Blotter

Police say Lorna Valle drowned her 1-year-old daughter Lindsay in an infant-size bathtub and attempted to drown her 5-year-old daughter, who was in critical condition until being taken off of life support Monday.

/ CBS Los Angeles

(CBS/AP) LOS ANGELES - Authorities say a 5-year-old Los Angeles girl has been taken off life support several days after her mother allegedly drowned her 1-year-old sister in a tub and attempted to drown her.

The 5-year-old was removed from life support Monday at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, said Officer Karen Rayner, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Police Department.

The girls' father, Jose Humberto Lopez, told KABC-TV that he decided to donate the 5-year-old's organs for transplant.

The girls' mother, 32-year-old Lorna Valle, was charged with murder and attempted murder Friday and is being held on $1.5 million bail.

Lopez told police he found his wife trying to drown the girls in a tub when he returned home from the store Wednesday morning.

Firefighters answering a 911 call found the girls unconscious and not breathing in a converted garage behind the main house. They were in a bathtub and had no pulses, fire department spokesman Erik Scott said.

They were given cardiopulmonary resuscitation and taken to a hospital, said Scott.

Doctors worked on both girls for two hours, but the 1-year-old died and the 5-year-old was transferred to Children's Hospital in critical but stable condition, said Katreena Salgado, spokeswoman for California Hospital Medical Center.

If convicted, Valle faces 50 years to life in prison.

More on Crimesider
February 15, 2012 - Calif. mother suspected in drowning death of 1-year-old, 5-year-old hospitalized

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by ahendryx819 February 21, 2012 5:51 PM EST: I wish this pathetic excuse for a human being could get the death penalty. 50-life doesn't seem like enough for murdering her babies. So many people who want kids can't have them, and then there are people like this who choose to take their lives from them. It makes me sick to imagine what the poor babies went through.; Reply to this comment