Colorado Child Dies After Parents Force Him To Drink 96 Ounces Of Water In Four Hours

A Colorado child died after his parents forced him to drink 96 ounces of water in just four hours.

The parents of 11-year-old Zachary Sabin turned themselves into police on Tuesday after an autopsy found that their son died of forced intoxication on March 11, according to the Colorado Springs Gazette. Complex Media reports that the boy’s father, Ryan, and stepmother Tara forced him to drink 24-ounce bottles of water within four hours without eating.

According to Zachary’s parents, the child had a hereditary urological disorder that caused him to wet the bed. The parents say they made him drink two 32-ounce bottles of water every day after seeing that his urine was dark. The night before Zachary died, Ryan said that the boy was drinking water and throwing up, and as the family continued to eat dinner, he told Zachary to chug the water like he would do when he was in the Army. He said the boy was “drinking the water too slowly and getting air in his stomach, which caused the water to sit on top of it.”

Complex reports that the boy started to throw a fit on the kitchen floor, crying out to his father that there was a pain in his legs. Trying to get him off the floor, Ryan kicked him but then picked him up and dropped him back on the ground. His head ended up hitting the ground hard. Ryan then took his son outside in hopes that the cold air would “snap Zachary out of his tantrum.” Throughout the night, Zachary paced around the kitchen, making strange noises, which seemed to be due to pain. One of the other five children said they saw Zachary throw up at least 10 times before he went to sleep at around 11:15 p.m.

When the morning came, Ryan called 911 after seeing Zachary foaming from his mouth with blood on his bed. A coroner also found blood on the child’s forehead and left eyebrow as well as a bruise on his head, arm, rear end, and shin. The affidavit also reported that the other children were subjected to abuse, as well. The kids’ ages range from 2 to 15. This incident is not the Sabin family’s first incident with the Colorado Department of Human Services, but the agency did not share what exactly they did in response to the complaints.

Both parents were charged with first-degree murder, child abuse resulting in death, and six counts of misdemeanor child abuse. The biological mother of Zachary said that her son was an avid reader who dreamed of being a veterinarian or zoologist.