Arvada police have found no answers yet to help explain the death of Kristina Vlassenko, an autistic 10-year-old whose body was found Tuesday morning in water-filled hole at a park construction site.
“Right now we’re focused on helping the family get through this,” said police spokeswoman Susan Medina. “We’ve got construction workers struggling to deal with this.
“This is a tragedy that’s affected a community.”
Investigators are waiting on an autopsy to officially determine Kristina’s cause of death, but it is suspected that she drowned.
They also have begun consulting with Life Trak, the maker of the tracking bracelet Kristina wore, to determine why it did not emit a signal.
Her family, Russian immigrants who speak little English, had the device tested at the Arvada police station every month.
Authorities think the bracelet might have failed because she was in the water. An expert in such systems said Tuesday that the beacons can be impeded by rough or mountainous terrain. Mounds of dirt surrounded the hole where she was found.
Life Trak is one of the most commonly used systems in Colorado, and all together there are 2,213 Colorado residents whose use alert systems, most of them Alzheimer’s patients.
Kristina wandered off at about 3:30 p.m. Monday and was found about 400 yards away in the Harold D. Lutz Sports Complex when construction crews showed up to work Tuesday.
Police today still did not know how Kristina got through the 8-foot-high chain-link fence surrounding the hole, Medina said.
Police asked that anyone who saw Kristina on Monday afternoon call them at 720-898-6900.
Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com
