GREENE TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- The Beaver County Coroner has ruled that a 4-year-old Greene Township boy found in a septic tank died of asphyxia due to drowning.
On Tuesday, Coroner Teri Tatalovich-Rossi issued a statement saying Wyatt Smitsky's official cause of death can't be determined, but that could change with more information.
No charges have been filed in the case. State police investigators haven't said whether they believe the death was a homicide, the result of negligence or an accident.
The boy was found dead in the septic tank on Sept. 5 on property near his home about 25 miles northwest of Pittsburgh.
The 4-year-old, who had a congenital heart defect requiring medication, disappeared while playing outside his home in the 600 block of Georgetown Road.
The boy was playing with two young sisters when he went missing, prompting an 18-hour search by hundreds of volunteers. Hazardous materials crews eventually discovered the body in a neighbor's septic tank.
Beaver County District Attorney Anthony Berosh says the tank's lid was a 14-pound sheet of corrugated metal -- not a heavy, dense manhole cover, as previously described by state police.
Berosh said that it might have been possible for Smitsky to move the cover by himself.
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