Sleepwalking girl, 4, hangs herself
A sleepwalking four-year-old girl has accidentally hanged herself from the top of her cabin bed with the strap of a Hello Kitty bag.
Her seven-year-old sister, Channelle, found her the next morning and alerted her parents.
Tegan was found hanging from her bed by the strap of her bag with her feet two inches off the ground.
Her mother, Becky Hancox, lifted her daughter and began resuscitation, even though the girl was obviously dead.
The young girl had a habit of sleepwalking during the night, a trait apparently inherited from her biological father.
Ms Hancox said her daughter would often climb out of her cabin bed at night, speak gibberish on the top of the stairs and have no recollection of it the following morning.
At an inquest into her death, it was found that Tegan died of an accidental hanging.
“There is nothing to suggest it was anything other than a tragic accident,” a doctor said.
The girls’ stepfather, Stephen Shreen, had put Tegan and Tayla to bed in the room they shared at 7:30om.
The two sisters were quietly sleeping when he checked on them 30 minutes later.
Mr Shreen said the Hello Kitty bag had been on the floor the night before, but Tegan must have unknowingly picked it up during the night.
Ms Hancox has started a campaign to make changes to the design of the bag and the bed — like a quick-release safety strap on all children’s bags and cabin beds without side slats.
Ms Hancox and Mr Shreen put off their wedding after the death of their daughter, but will complete their nuptials in August.
