Published April 2007

“A Wake-Up Call“

By Jim Kneiszel

The phrase “accident waiting to happen’’ could have been coined to describe a tragic story about a broken septic tank riser and the horrible death of a cute little 3-year-old boy near Kalispell, Mont. On Jan. 24, according to news and police accounts in Montana, Mark Rogers picked up his son, Loic J.M. Rogers, from a babysitter’s house, pointing the boy toward their car parked in the driveway before going back inside to round up his daughter. When the elder Rogers emerged from the house a minute later to secure Loic in his car seat, the boy was nowhere to be found. After two days of searching, officials had the babysitter’s septic tank pumped and found the boy drowned inside.