A 31-year-old Las Vegas woman was taken into custody by police last week after she called 911 saying she tried to drown her 15-month-old daughter, according to an arrest report. Desiree Mason was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and child abuse or neglect by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police on Saturday, May 14.
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police said that Mason called 911 on Friday, May 13, saying she had hit and almost drowned her child. The 911 operator stayed on the line with Mason for 18 minutes to ensure her daughter was okay.
Officers arrived at Mason's residence and took the girl to Sunrise Hospital for evaluation, according to a report by KSNV. Doctors did not find additional injuries on her daughter, and the young girl was ultimately cleared for discharge.
Mason's apartment smells of rotting food, cat feces and urine, and trash
The arrest report further stated that the Las Vegas police were overwhelmed by the smell of cat feces, cat urine, trash, and rotting food in Mason's apartment. Trash covered most of the floors of the rooms in Mason's apartment, with police calling the house unsafe and unhealthy for humans or animals, especially for a young child crawling and playing on the ground.
Mason told a detective in an interview that she was recently estranged from family and friends, causing her to feel isolated and become upset. Mason told police during the interrogation that she slapped her daughter and pulled the child into the water in the bathtub.
Mason could not explain why she did such a thing. The mother added she held her daughter underwater for about 30 seconds before realizing what she was doing to her kid was wrong, according to a report by KLAS.
Mason later demonstrated the incident to police using a doll. Police noted that she could not explain why she felt the sudden urge to slap her daughter or attempt to drown her. She only said she saw red, claiming it did not seem like she was doing this to her child but rather to someone or something else.
Mason held on $50,000 bail; a court appearance is set for Tuesday
Police also stated in the report that kids can often hold their breath for around 30 seconds, so it was likely that the child was "at the verge of beginning to inhale water."
A detective also interviewed Mason's husband after her arrest. He said that Mason was not on any medication, and she had not received any mental health diagnoses that he was aware of. Certain sections of that interview were redacted, with Las Vegas police citing medical privacy law.
Jail records showed Mason is being held on $50,000 bail with her court appearance scheduled for Tuesday morning, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
