A 19 year old mother, one of the initial plaintiffs in a law suit filed against Flint, Michigan in response to their water crisis, has been found dead just days after the body of a foreman at the Flint Water Treatment was also found.

Sasha Avonna Bell filed a lawsuit on behalf of her 1 year old son who she claimed suffered from lead poisoning due to the water crisis facilitated by the city. She and her friend, Sacorya Reed, were both found dead in a home off of Ridgecrest Drive in Flint. A one year old child was also found in the home, but it has yet to be determined if it was Bell’s son. According to local law enforcement, a suspect has been taken into custody in this homicide.

On April 16th, Water Treatment Plant foreman Matthew McFarland, 43, was also found dead just before three of his colleagues were to be charged in the investigation stemming from the Flint Water Crisis. It seems that McFarland had been sought by police for questioning prior to his demise. His body was found in his home by a friend who had come to visit him at his house on Otter Lake. According to the local Sheriff’s department there were no signs of foul play in the home and toxicology reports have yet to come back. An autopsy was conducted and was not able to determine a cause of death.

It seems as though I am not the only one looking at this odd “coincidence” and raising an eyebrow over it. Evidently, local deputies had contacted both state and federal officials because Mr. McFarland had been questioned by investigators who were looking into Flint’s recent Water Emergency. On Wednesday Michigan Attorney General Bill Shuette had just announced that three of McFarland’s colleagues were being charged in the water debacle that has rocked the entire nation. In case you have been living under a rock, the accusations against the city of Flint are pretty onerous.

“For nearly 18 months after Flint’s water source was switched while the city was under state financial management, residents drank and bathed with improperly treated water that coursed through aging pipes and fixtures, releasing toxic lead.”

During that time it has been determined that multiple city employees in its water department had lied about water samples that had been taken from low risk properties and substituted for high risk properties, they neglected to add chemicals to the water in order to detoxify it and were not observing other health protocols that might have saved at least 10 people who from fell ill with Legionnaire’s disease  and later died. 87 cases of the disease were found throughout the Flint area before the outbreak was contained.

On Thursday Attorney General Bill Schuette announced that he was pressing charges against multiple Flint, Michigan Water Treatment employees for the debacle.

One can only hope that through the investigation the guilty parties will be held accountable for what they have wrought on the people of Flint, Michigan. Hopefully they will also be able to determine if the senseless deaths of these two people were somehow connected to the case. In the meantime, I pray for Sasha Avonna Bell’s son and hope that her family, and McFarland’s, find peace.