Boy's death in foster care 'no accident': dad

The father of 22-month-old Evander Daniels, who drowned while in foster care outside Saskatoon, says he doesn't believe his son's death was an accident.

"His burns to his body were just horrible, and this is no accident," Chris Martel told CBC News Wednesday.

Martel said that despite repeated requests for information, authorities have not provided him with a full report on the circumstances of his son's death.

The boy was found partially submerged in a bathtub in a foster home in Aberdeen, about 40 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon, on June 8. He was rushed to a hospital in Saskatoon but could not be revived.

A coroner's report said the boy drowned and there were signs of scalding on his body.

On Aug. 19, RCMP announced that the woman who ran the foster home, Eunice Wudrich, 45, had been charged with endangering the life of a child and criminal negligence causing death.

Her lawyer, Mark Brayford, says Evander's death was a tragic accident, a position Brayford repeated Wednesday after an appearance in provincial court.

"It's speculation whether the child slipped in the tub," Brayford told reporters. "I mean, this is a child that's old enough to climb in and out of the tub."

Brayford noted that the child had an unexplained scrape on his head that could have come from a fall in the tub.

The boy was found in about five centimetres of water and was alone in the bathroom while Wudrich was in another room supervising four foster children and her own daughter.

Martel said it was not like his son to get into mischief.

"He wasn't the type to climb in the bathtub and turn anything on," Martel said. "He was a good little boy. He didn't go in the kitchen and grab pots and pans or nothing. He wasn't the type to do that kind of stuff."

Martel said the boy's mother was in the process of having him returned to her custody at the time he died. He said the child was in foster care because the mother had been suffering from postpartum depression.

The matter will be back before the courts in January to set a date for a preliminary hearing.

Brayford said his client plans to plead not guilty.