Coroner ruling: Boy drowns in Pa. pond accident

ALBION, Pa. (AP) — A coroner says a South Carolina toddler’s drowning death in a northwestern Pennsylvania pond was an accident, though state police say they are still investigating the incident.

Dennis Suschek, the deputy Erie County Coroner, says 2-year-old Ryan Highfill, of Columbia, S.C., somehow wandered into the pond Wednesday night in Conneaut Township, about 100 miles north of Pittsburgh.

The boy’s parents were visiting relatives, and the boy apparently wandered away during a family gathering.

The boy was pronounced dead at Hamot Medical Center in Erie after his family found him in the water about 8:45 p.m. but couldn’t revive him.

Authorities don’t know how long the boy was in the pond.