A troubled young Bronx mother was already being investigated by the city’s embattled child-welfare agency when she tried to drown her infant daughter in a bathtub, police and family said yesterday.
Only a quick-thinking relative with training in CPR saved Elizabeth Gonzalez from being the latest in a recent string of children who died despite having cases open with the beleaguered Administration for Children’s Services.
Carol Gonzalez, 25, was awaiting arraignment last night on charges of second-degree attempted murder and endangering the welfare of a child.
Police said Gonzalez tried to drown her 5-month-old child in the bathroom of her Beach Avenue apartment in The Bronx. A source said Gonzalez spoke to police of putting the child out of its “misery.”
According to Gonzalez’s aunt, Nohemy Bermudez, Gonzalez was diagnosed last year with post-partum depression, an analysis that triggered a call to ACS in October.
Bermudez said the agency continued to monitor the family, and even visited the Bronx home as recently as Sunday.
An ACS spokeswoman, Tanya Valle-Batista, said a child-abuse complaint against the mother was unsubstantiated, but that the agency is still investigating.
Additional reporting by Philip Messing