CORONER RULES IN DEATH OF JACKSON GIRL

Cape Girardeau County Coroner John Carpenter said Tuesday he is ruling that the death last month of a 13-year-old Jackson girl was from drowning due to toxicity from sniffing paint fumes.

The coroner said he made the ruling after receiving on Monday a toxicology report on blood, urine and organ tissues from the SEMO Regional Crime Laboratory at Southeast Missouri State University.

"There was enough in her system to cause problems," said Carpenter. "It's just like somebody who drank too much: it affects your whole system."

The body of Bobby Christina Jones was found the morning of June 22 in a shallow section of Hubble Creek after she was reported missing the night before. The creek runs through Jackson City Park.

Authorities determined that on June 21 Jones was with friends at the park, where she had sniffed spray paint fumes. The practice can cause an intoxicated feeling, Carpenter had said.

Carpenter said Tuesday there is no way to know whether the girl drowned after becoming completely unconscious or whether she fell into the water and struggled to save herself. The toxicology report did not tell the amount of fumes the girl would have had to sniff to reach the condition she did, he said.

"All we've got is conversation from the other kids that this has been going on for some time," said Carpenter. "It's a very fine-line situation," he said.

Someone else, Carpenter said, could have sniffed the same amount of fumes and gotten "high" and gone home, with nothing ever coming of it.