Suspect booked in drowning of 2-year-old at Las Vegas apartment

The 44-year-old mother who police say drowned her 2-year-old daughter in a bathtub in a northeast Las Vegas apartment on Saturday has been booked into the Clark County Detention Center.

Linette Warrichaiet, who also goes by Linette Boedicker, faces one count of murder after police found the fully clothed girl floating face-up in a bathtub at the Sunset Terrace apartments, 2855 N. Walnut Road, according to the Metropolitan Police Department.

“Warrichaiet held the child under the water until she stopped breathing and then called 911,” a Metro release said Sunday.

Dispatchers received a 911 call from the woman reporting her child was drowning about 3 p.m. Saturday, but she ignored dispatcher’s instructions to pull the child out of the water or perform CPR, Metro homicide Lt. Ray Spencer said Saturday evening.

An officer arrived within five minutes of the call, but the woman didn’t open the door for almost two minutes, Spencer said. The officer then found the girl in the bathtub.

“She did not pull the child out of the bathtub. That we do know,” Spencer said.

The girl was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead, he said.

A neighbor told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he saw an officer crying as he carried a “lifeless” toddler in his arms while leaving an apartment in the complex on Saturday afternoon. Spencer said officers on the scene were “shaken” by the child’s death.

Police were called to the same apartment unit Saturday morning for a domestic disturbance, Spencer said. He did not release more details about that call because of the open investigation.

The mother and daughter were alone in the apartment when officers arrived Saturday afternoon. Police have interviewed the woman’s husband, who was at work at the time and wasn’t considered a suspect in his daughter’s death, Spencer said Sunday.

Warrichaiet remained in the detention center Sunday without bail, jail records show. The Clark County coroner’s office will identify the girl, as well as her cause and manner of death.

The girl’s death marks the 39th Metro homicide investigation this year and the 52nd in Clark County, according to Review-Journal records.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter. Review-Journal staff writer Mike Shoro contributed to this report.