Police Release Final Text from Teen Killed in Cell Phone Charging Electrocution

Police officials and parents released the final text from a young Texas girl found electrocuted in her bathtub after plugging in her cell phone to a faulty extension cord.

“When you use and (SIC) extension cord so you can plug your phone in while you’re in the bath,” 14-year-old Madison Coe texted to a friend shortly before her tragic death, NBC11 reported.

Coe plugged her cell phone charger into a frayed extension cord and later apparently touched the cord while sitting in the tub. Officials discovered a burn mark on her hand from where she touched the cord,

Coe was visiting her father’s house in Lovington, New Mexico, when the accident occurred, Breitbart Texas reported.

The young girl’s grandmother, Donna O’Guinn, told the local NBC affiliate the cell phone being plugged in caused the girl’s death. “There was a burn mark on her hand, the hand that would have grabbed the phone. And that was just very obvious that that’s what had happened,” O’Guinn explained.

The photo released shows her cell phone charger plugged into a non-grounded extension cord laying on the bathroom floor. The connection is laying on a towel in an apparent effort to keep it from making contact with any water on the floor. The young girl was apparently unaware the cord had frayed, and the electrocution occurred when she touched that portion of the cord while she was still in the bath water.

The extension cord was plugged into a non-GFCI, non-grounded bathroom outlet. This type of outlet does not provide any protection in the event of an accident.

Her parents agreed to release the photo of the text to help warn other people about the danger of using anything plugged into electricity while in a bathtub or around water.

Police officials said there is no evidence that her cell phone ever touched the water.

“We need to be aware. We need to teach our children that electricity and water do not mix,” O’Guinn explained shortly after her granddaughter’s death. “She’s just going to be greatly missed by all of us. She has a special place in my heart.”