Houston police say that a 10-year-old boy died after he climbed into a tumble dryer during a game of hide-and-seek.
The Harris County medical examiner’s office said on Monday that the boy was electrocuted.
Investigators first thought he may have suffocated when he climbed into the machine in the laundry room of an apartment complex on Friday.
Christina Rodriguez identified the child to reporters as her son, third-grader Fernando Hernandez Jr.
Police Detective Michael Arrington told reporters that other children who were playing with Fernando found him unresponsive inside the dryer.
The Chronicle notes that the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued a bulletin in December about several suffocation deaths which involve children who crawled inside latch-type dryers.
Dryer deaths involving electrocution, however, appear to be rare.