Girl strangled while playing with dog leash

ALLIANCE (AP) -- An 11-year-old girl apparently was strangled while playing with her brother with a dog leash around her neck.
Marianna Colon was pronounced dead Sunday at Alliance Community Hospital. Investigators believe the death was an accident.
"We don't believe anyone else had a hand in this," said Harry Campbell, chief investigator for the Stark County coroner's office. "We're hard-pressed to believe that an 11-year-old who's having a happy lifestyle would have a hand in ending her life."
Jimmy Colon, 33, said his daughter and her 10-year-old brother, Jimmy Colon Jr., "had a habit of acting like dogs" when they were playing.
"I told them never to play with that leash," he said. "But you know how kids are; they never listen to their parents."
The girl and her brother were playing on the second floor of the family's home in this city about 50 miles southeast of Cleveland.
Family members believe the girl put one end of the leash around her neck and fastened the other end to a nail. The loop around her neck must have tightened when her weight shifted, family members said.
Her brother tried to save the girl but could not lift her because she was heavier than he was, said their mother, Karla Colon, 30.