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4-year-old girl dies after getting trapped under tractor in Connecticut, police say

A 4-year-old girl died after getting trapped under a farm tractor’s slice seeder in Connecticut, Watertown police say. Her death was ruled as accidental.
A 4-year-old girl died after getting trapped under a farm tractor’s slice seeder in Connecticut, Watertown police say. Her death was ruled as accidental. Getty Images/iStockphoto

A 4-year-old died after getting trapped underneath a farm tractor in Connecticut, according to police.

The young girl was identified as Ellie Kuslis, the Watertown Police Department said in a news release.

The child became “entangled within a farm implement” and died soon after on April 23 in Watertown, according to a separate news release.

She got stuck in a moving slice seeder attached to the tractor, operated by her father, police said. The tractor wasn’t running at the time, but the slice seeder “remained engaged.”

Slice seeders are machines used to cut soil and plant seeds in the ground.

Ultimately, Ellie’s death was ruled accidental, and she died from “blunt force trauma,” the state’s chief medical examiner determined, according to police.

“The Watertown Police Department extends our deepest sympathy to the family and friends of the child and wishes to express our gratitude to the police officers, firefighters and neighbors who did all they could to help,” police said in a statement.

Her death is under investigation as of April 25, according to authorities.

Watertown is roughly 40 miles southwest of Hartford.

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This story was originally published April 25, 2022 at 12:53 PM with the headline "4-year-old girl dies after getting trapped under tractor in Connecticut, police say."

Julia Marnin
McClatchy DC
Julia Marnin covers courts for McClatchy News, writing about criminal and civil affairs, including cases involving policing, corrections, civil liberties, fraud, and abuses of power. As a reporter on McClatchy’s National Real-Time Team, she’s also covered the COVID-19 pandemic and a variety of other topics since joining in 2021, following a fellowship with Newsweek. Born in Biloxi, Mississippi, she was raised in South Jersey and is now based in New York State.
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