Canadian mother to stand trial for bathtub drowning of her autistic daughter
September 18, 2006 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under China, Crime, Legal Issues
As reported in the September 17th Edmonton Sun, 34-year-old Xuan Peng will stand trial for second-degree murder in the bathtub drowning of her four-year-old daughter, Scarlett Chen, who was autistic. On July 12, 2004, Scarlett was found dead in a bathtub filled with water and laundry by her father, David Chen, according to a story in the March 2, 2005, Globe and Mail. Scarlett’s death was originally ruled accidental; after seven months, police charged Peng with first-degree murder.
Chen and his wife came from China to Canada in 1998; Scarlett, who was born in 2000, was their only child. The 2005 Globe and Mail story noted that, at the time of her death, Scarlett, who did not speak, was reported to have “mild autism.” While the September 17th Edmonton Sun article notes that Scarlett was autistic, Chen was quoted in 2005 as saying “‘She was a very active girl, very lovely and we love her so much. Our family didn’t think she had autism.’”
Xuan Peng’s trial is set for October 18th.
Jeff Stimpson
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Check out what others are saying about this post...[...] Today’s London Free Press article notes that “further evidence” led police to change their minds about Scarlet’s drowning being accidental—-after which the London Free Press quotes Scarlet’s father, David Chen, as recently saying that, while is daughter showed “‘minor symptoms of autism,’” she was never diagnosed with autism: “‘We brought her to see the doctor. She couldn’t speak at age four and that was not normal,’” he was also quoted as saying. In September 18th post, I quoted Chen also as saying “‘‘She was a very active girl, very lovely and we love her so much. Our family didn’t think she had autism.’” [...]