A 3-year-old boy who was found in an abandoned cistern after disappearing during a family barbecue in Peetz died late Sunday night, authorities said today.
The cause of the boy’s death was not determined by the Logan County Coroner on Monday, and his name was being withheld while his extended family members were notified.
The boy was reported missing at about 7:10 p.m. in the 18000 block of County Road 74 while at a barbecue with his mother and grandparents. The child’s father, a former Sterling firefighter, was out of town at the time of the incident, said Logan County Sheriff Brett Powell.
The boy was playing with other children when he disappeared. After the children returned without the boy, the family began looking for him and called for help, Powell said.
Family members, sheriff’s deputies, the Colorado State Patrol and firefighters looked for the child for more than an hour before they located him.
The boy was found in the uncovered cistern, about 30 yards away from the family’s farm. The cistern had water inside, but it was not immediately known whether the boy had drowned, Powell said.
The child was taken to Sterling Regional Medical Center, and he was pronounced dead at 9:15 p.m.
Authorities are investigating how the boy got into the cistern, which was described as 14- to 16-inches wide.
Investigators were interviewing family members today.
“As far as I know, it has not happened here before, but you know, there is a lot of these (abandoned cisterns) out there still today,” Powell said. “The original purpose on these old farmsteads, before they had wells, they would haul water from town and put it in these cisterns.”
