AUSTIN • A Texas teenager was killed after she allegedly used a cellphone that was plugged in during her bath, prompting her family to spread word of the incident to prevent another electrocution death.

Madison Coe, 14, from Lubbock, was taking a bath at her father's home in New Mexico at the weekend when he knocked on the door and said it was time to get out.

"Okay," Madison reportedly said.

But when she failed to emerge 20 minutes later, her father Logan Coe entered the bathroom and found her unresponsive in the water.

Her cellphone was found plugged into an outlet in the wall, Madison's mother Angela O'Guinn-Downs told People magazine.

The cellphone had fallen into the bathtub, the family told local news media in Lovington, New Mexico. The girl had a burn mark on her hand.

The medical examiner has yet to rule on the official cause of death, but the authorities said in a news release that "initial evidence shows signs consistent with electrocution".

"This is such a tragedy that doesn't need to happen to anyone else," Madison's grandmother Donna O'Guinn told Lubbock TV station KCBD. She added: "We want something good to come out of this, as awareness of not using your cellphone in the bathroom as it is plugged in and charging."

Ms O'Guinn-Downs put a post on her Facebook page showing pictures of her daughter that ran with the message: "Please, please let her voice be heard and protect and educate your children on the fatal dangers of electrocution."

REUTERS, WASHINGTON POST