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17-year-old fatally electrocuted after stepping barefoot into camper, Ohio cops say

Ohio police said the scene was “soaked” from rain.
Ohio police said the scene was “soaked” from rain. Getty Images/iStockphoto

UPDATE: This story has been updated to include a statement from FirstEnergy Corp.



An Ohio teenager “appeared to have been” fatally electrocuted after stepping barefoot into a camper on a rainy night, police said.

Officers responding Aug. 18 to a report of an injured person arrived at a residence to find firefighters loading 17-year-old Olivia Bright into a chest compression machine, according to a report from the Toledo Police Department.

The teen had burns on her right hand and was in cardiac arrest, police said. She was taken to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead, according to police.

Firefighters said Bright “appeared to have been electrocuted” after entering a camper parked on her family’s property barefoot, noting that the scene was “soaked” from rain, according to police.

An investigation revealed the camper was unplugged and had no signs of charring, police said.

According to Toledo Edison, a FirstEnergy Corp. utility company called to investigate, the camper was not energized, police said.

“All I know is that Toledo Edison cleared my power,” Bright’s mother Kimberly told WTVG. “They cleared my electrical.”

Bright’s family said they are waiting for the coroner’s report to learn exactly how the teen died, the station reported.

“Our thoughts are with the family following this tragic event, and we are working with officials as they investigate the incident,” Hannah Catlett, a spokesperson for FirstEnergy Corp. told McClatchy News on Aug. 21.

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This story was originally published August 20, 2024 at 1:25 PM with the headline "17-year-old fatally electrocuted after stepping barefoot into camper, Ohio cops say."

Lauren Liebhaber
mcclatchy-newsroom
Lauren Liebhaber covers international science news with a focus on taxonomy and archaeology at McClatchy. She holds a bachelor’s degree from St. Lawrence University and a master’s degree from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University. Previously, she worked as a data journalist at Stacker.
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