The drowning of 18- month-old Gabriela Montoya on Easter Sunday, April 8, in
a hot tub in Frazier Park, has been followed by the arrest of her aunt,
Guadalupe Hernandez Vasquez, 25.

Vasquez’ four children have been removed from the home and taken to Jamison
Center in Bakersfield for care.

Vasquez was arrested on suspicion of child endangerment and involuntary
manslaughter after after Sr. Deputy Vincent Martinez of the Frazier Park
Substation and an investigating child protective services worker learned Vasquez
had consumed sleeping tablets and taken a nap rather than watching over the five
young children left in her care. In addition to her eighteen-month- old niece,
who drowned, the other children in the home were aged nine, seven, five, and
four.

“Vasquez’ choice to go to sleep and leave her nine year old daughter in
charge of the children showed a lack of due caution for the welfare of the
children, ” deputies said.

Sr. Deputy Martinez said officials became alarmed when they discovered that
another child in Vasquez’ care “and under her direct supervision” had to be
airlifted to Kern Medical Center and then to Valley Children’s Hospital for
medical care in 2003. “The child was not breathing when deputies arrived. She
said the child was in the bathtub and slipped under the water.”

That child survived and it was considered an accident, “but we became alarmed
for the welfare of the children remaining with her,” Martinez explained in an
interview Friday, April 13. “We took a warrant directly to a judge instead of
waiting two weeks for the district attorney because of our concern for the other
children,” he said.

“The judge signed the warrant at 11:30 a.m. Thursday and we went for the
arrest right away, on Thursday afternoon.”

Vasquez’ neighbors also report that she “constantly leaves all of the
children unattended in the back yard while she goes inside to listen to music,”
Kern County sheriff’s deputies said in the offical report regarding the arrest.

“No one held the child under water; we aren’t alleging anything like that,”
Martinez continued, “by their guidelines the coroner has to rule the death
accidental, but there was probable cause for us to make this arrest. The
sheriff’s department thoroughly investigates the death of every child that is
not from clear-cut natural causes, including SIDS, to rule out foul play…we
try to be respectful of a family’s grieving, but we need to conduct a thorough
investigation.”

This is part of the April 20, 2007 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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