Evgenia Sviridenko, 24, of Moscow, Russia was in the bathtub looking at her social media page on VKontakte (the Russian equivalent of Facebook) when her iPhone 4 fell into the water. Sviridenko and her roommate, Yaroslav Dubinina, 23, shared an apartment. The roommate found Sviridenko’s lifeless body when she noticed she had been gone awhile and went to check on her.
Speaking from the apartment the two girls shared, Dubinina told the Mirror, “I noticed that she had been gone a while, and when I couldn’t raise her I opened the door and saw her floating on the water looking pale. I saw her phone which was on charge at the bottom of the bath. Her body was still shaking from the shock.”
Police are now investigating why the charger did not automatically cut off as licensed Apple products are designed to do, although police refused to reveal whether it was or was not an Apple product. According to the Daily Mail, Russian media is saying Sviridenko’s iPhone 4 had apparently still been working after it was retrieved from the bathtub because an automatic update had been posted on her social media page showing she had called the emergency services telephone number.
Miss Sviridenko’s death comes just a few days after a 16-year-old girl from Russia’s Bashkortostan Republic died after taking her iPhone while it was charging into the shower with her. In August, 2014, Wu Wenyuan, an 18-year-old girl from Xinjiang, China died in her sleep after her iPhone 4S delivered a fatal shock, burning her body and killing her. She is reported to have been charging her phone using a “knock-off” charger, according to the Mirror.
Apple has previously released statements on their website, warning of the danger of not using licensed Apple chargers. There has also been considerable debate over an iPhone charger electrocuting someone. “We have seen very few incidents related to shock or electrocution involving cell phones,” Scott Wolfson of the US Consumer Product Safety Commission said to CNN, as reported by Tech 2 FirstPost. ”Most of our attention has been on overheating, smoke or fire.”
9to5mac, an Apple information website told consumers in 2013 there were many very convincing look-alike fake Apple chargers for sale in China, and to be very careful of what they purchase.
