• U.S.
  • New Mexico

‘She Just Loved Life.’ Texas Teen Dies After Being Electrocuted by Cellphone in Bathtub, Family Says

2 minute read

A 14-year-old Texas girl died after she was apparently electrocuted while using her cellphone in the bathtub, her family and authorities said.

Madison Coe was taking a bath at her father’s New Mexico home over the weekend when she either plugged her Samsung Edge Plus into an outlet or grabbed it while it was already charging, her mother told PEOPLE.

“[Her father] found her. He had knocked on the door to tell her it was time to get out [of the tub] and she said, ‘OK,’” Angela O’Guinn-Downs said. “He went back 20 minutes later, she didn’t respond and he went in.”

The medical examiner has not yet released Madison’s cause of death. Officials said “initial evidence shows signs consistent with that of electrocution,” according to KCBD.

Authorities said a cellphone, charger and extension cord were found by the bathtub, according to the Washington Post. The teenager also had a burn mark on her hand, her relatives said. “That was just very obvious that that’s what had happened,” the girl’s grandmother, Donna O’Guinn, told KCBD-TV.

Madison was mourned and remembered as a bright girl who loved playing basketball and the tuba. She had just graduated from 8th grade and was set to start high school in Houston. “I call her my shining star,” her grandmother told KCBD. “She was very smart, a very good student in school. She just loved life.”

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