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Christopher Stum (Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office).
An Idaho father, Christopher Stum, has been charged with felony counts of injury to a child and the destruction, alteration, or concealment of evidence. The charges stem from an incident where he allegedly poured scalding hot water on his 1-month-old son, resulting in second-degree burns covering nearly a quarter of the infant’s body. According to police reports, Stum claimed he resorted to this extreme measure because the child felt cold following a bath, and his attempts to “air-dry” the baby to provide warmth had failed.
The case, as detailed in online court records and further elaborated by East Idaho News, reveals that Stum adjusted his water heater’s temperature from 150 degrees Fahrenheit to 121 degrees Fahrenheit before taking his injured son to a hospital. This adjustment was allegedly an attempt to mislead authorities regarding the circumstances of the injury. The incident took place on January 22 when the infant was brought in for treatment.
Stum, the sole parent in the household, told investigators he filled a pitcher with hot water from the bathtub to pour over his son after determining that the infant was cold post-bath. His initial method of “air-drying” to warm the baby proved ineffective, leading to the decision to use hot water. The court documents indicate that once the hot water was poured, the baby screamed in pain, and his skin turned red and began to peel. Recognizing the severity of the situation, Stum rushed the child to the emergency room, where medical staff treated the baby for burns covering 24% of his body.
Stum, who is the only parent in the home, told investigators he noticed his infant son was cold after bathing him, so he filled up a pitcher with hot water from the bathtub’s faucet and dumped it on him, per the court documents. He allegedly tried “air-drying” the boy to warm him up, but it wasn’t working.
Stum told police that after getting the hot water poured on him, the baby began screaming in pain as his skin quickly reddened and began to peel off, according to the court documents. Stum rushed the boy to the emergency room and he was treated for second-degree burns on 24% of his body.
Authorities were notified and interviewed Stum, who allegedly admitted to pouring the water on the victim. He claimed to have put his finger in the pitcher to test the heat, saying he didn’t believe it would burn the boy, before eventually admitting that it was scalding, the East Idaho News reports, citing the court docs.
Police went to Stum’s home and allegedly found that the water heater was at 121 degrees. He later confessed to cops that he had adjusted the water heater, as doctors reported that the burns his son suffered were likely from water that was between 130 and 150 degrees, the court docs state.
Stum allegedly admitted that he knew the water in his home heated up fast and recounted instances where he, himself, was burned by it. He was arrested and booked at the Bonneville County Jail, with a preliminary hearing date set for Feb. 11, according to court records.