The story of the Chimney Rock child who fell and died continues to evolve

In this May 25 blog post, I noted the wide disparity of facts being reported in the death of a child who fell from a trail at Chimney Rock Park.

I understand that breaking news can be difficult to handle, but the facts were all over the place. It was obvious that the park was initially trying to hold back until its personnel could collect information and understand the tragedy. But did news reporters do their job?

What should news organizations do in cases like this? Should they hold back until most of the basic facts are known? Should they rush out any and all information, even if it’s second- or third-hand? How many of the local news organizations actually sent reporters to the scene that day to report the story? Does a reporter have to be on the scene to get the story?

These are all critical questions.

Meantime, the Chimney Rock story continues to evolve. The mother of the dead child spoke to a local newspaper and detailed the accident, which caused park officials to revise their official version of events. The Spanish newspaper La Voz got the interview with the mother.

That issue reveals another glaring weakness among mainstream reporting outlets here in Western North Carolina — they’re totally unprepared to deal with the local Hispanic population. Does the Citizen-Times, the region’s largest news-gathering operation, have a singe Spanish-speaking news reporter? How about WLOS?

The mother of a 2-year-old who fell to his death at Chimney Rock State Park, southeast of Asheville, is disputing reports from park officials who said the boy ran from her and fell after slipping under a wooden rail.

Bibiana Saenz Bautista, 28, told the Spanish newspaper La Voz that she had her son, Giovani “Nani” Chávez Saenz, by the hand when he suddenly tried to pull away, lost his footing and fell between two wooden rails that guard the Skyline Trail.

“There were about 15 of us. We were walking nearly single file in an area maybe a meter (39 inches) wide,” Saenz said Thursday. “He had a hold of my hand, when he wanted to join his cousins who were walking in front and pulled at my hand. His foot slipped, and he fell between the rails. He disappeared below, and that was the last time I saw my son until I saw his body at the hospital.”

Division of Parks and Recreation spokesman Charlie Peek initially said that the mother was holding her child’s hand, walking between him and the railing, just before he fell on May 24. Peek said in a telephone interview Thursday night that his information was the result of a statement Saenz apparently made to Lake Lure police officer Glenn Gittens, who served as an interpreter.

Peek corrected the part of the report that said the mother was walking on the outside of the trail. He said it was the child who was walking next to the railing, adding that the discrepancy stemmed from secondhand, word-of-mouth information contradicted by written investigative notes, apparently also the result of Gittens’ interpretation.

Peek said investigators have wanted to talk again to Saenz and her husband, Arturo Chávez García, 25, but the couple had not returned several messages left at the home of Saenz’s sister.

Saenz said she has received no such messages and only Tuesday had a telephone line installed in her home.

Peek said park signs warn visitors of the risks of falling and even death at the beginning of the Skyline and Cliff trails. He said the park discourages parents from taking smaller children on the trails because of the cliffs.

“We didn’t see any signs in Spanish,” Saenz said. “If they don’t think children should be on those trails, then why does it say at the entrance, ‘Adults $14 and children under 6, free?’”