Authorities in New Mexico on Friday released the final text message sent by 14-year-old Madison Coe before she was electrocuted while taking a bath earlier this month.
Family members told KCBD that Madison was visiting her father in Lovington, New Mexico, on July 9 when she was electrocuted and killed while using her plugged-in cellphone in the bath.
A trio of text messages released by Lovington police showed an image sent by Madison of a cellphone charger plugged into an extension cord, which was in turn plugged into a bathroom wall outlet. The cords were shown sitting on top of a towel.
"When you use (an) extension cord so you can plug your phone in while you're in the bath," Madison wrote in a subsequent message.
In a statement obtained by EverythingLubbock.com, Lovington police said officials preliminarily ruled Madison's death an accident due to electrocution.
Police said Madison was using her Samsung S6 Edge cellphone while bathing. She was careful to make sure the cords stayed dry, authorities said, but was apparently unaware of a “significant area of fraying to the extension cord.”
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The cord was plugged into an non-GFCI outlet that was not grounded, police said.
“Specific evidence shows that the cellular telephone was never immersed in water,” police said. “Forensic evidence indicated that (Madison) came in contact with (the) area of the frayed extension cord while she was still in the bathtub, which contained water at the time, resulting in her electrocution.”
Madison's grandmother, Donna O'Guinn, described the teen last week to KCBD as a "very smart" girl who "just loved life."
“She was just sweet to everybody and everybody loved her,” O’Guinn said. “This is such a tragedy that doesn’t need to happen to anyone else.”
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