Associated Press
 
April 22, 2009
 
VALE, Ore. -- Authorities say a 4-year-old boy was pronounced dead after his mother retrieved him from a pond near their home north of Vale.
 
Sheriff Andy Bentz of Malheur says the child's mother called late Monday afternoon after she and other relatives could not find the boy, identified as Jacob Hill.
 
The sheriff's office sent a sergeant and two deputies to the scene, but it was the mother who found Jacob in the pond. Deputies performed CPR, but the boy was pronounced dead late Monday at Holy Rosary Medical Center.
 
Bentz told the Argus Observer newspaper that the mother left Jacob in the care of two siblings while she spoke on the telephone, and the siblings lost track of him.