Mother charged in boy's drowning

July 19, 2012

A mother has been charged with manslaughter after her five-year-old son drown at a Catawba County boat club earlier this month. Investigators say the woman was drunk when the boy fell into the water.

Cody Ray Johnson, 5, was found at the bottom of Lake Hickory on July 7 after he apparently wandered away from a cookout his mother and siblings attended at Dixie Boat Club.

In connection with the boy's death, Christie Johnson Hudgins, 34, was charged with involuntary manslaughter on July 13, according to Catawba County Sheriff Coy Reid.

"From the interviews we conducted, the people said she was intoxicated and not watching her child," Reid said Wednesday. "We talked with the district attorney's office and decided to charge her with involuntary manslaughter."

To read more of this story, pick up the weekend print edition of Catawba County's community newspaper, The Observer News Enterprise, at newsstands throughout the county.