Idaho sheriff: Oregon mom killed baby, then self

MURPHY, Idaho (AP) — Law enforcement officers in southwestern Idaho say a 31-year-old Oregon woman apparently drowned her baby and then killed herself in Owyhee County.

Sheriff Perry Grant said a farm worker called emergency workers Tuesday morning to report he’d found a Ford Focus parked by a bridge near the small community of Hammett. The deputies who responded found 31-year-old Desiree Vistercil of Jordan Valley, Oregon, and her 16-month-old daughter dead inside the car.

Vistercil, who died of a single gunshot wound to the head, was in the driver’s seat. The child’s body was found immersed in a bucket of water in the back seat, and a coroner later determined the child died of drowning.

Grant said that at this time, all evidence suggests that Vistercil killed the child and then herself, but he said the investigation is ongoing. He said he wanted to express his deepest condolences to the families of the deceased, and said his staffers have been shaken by the deaths.