Somewhere far away Matthew Carrington is shaking his head in disbelief.
Just a few hours south of Chico, his mother, Debbie Smith, is too. She can't believe how someone else could have died from water intoxication after her son's death was covered across the nation.
"It made me sick," she said. "I'm still in shock."
The latest tragedy occurred in Sacramento, only 90 miles from Chico, when a mother of three participated in a radio promotion called "Hold Your Wee for a Wii." Jennifer Lea Strange reportedly drank close to two gallons of water, without urinating, and finished second in the contest to win a Nintendo Wii video game system. She then drove home, where she was found dead by her mother.
Preliminary autopsy reports proved that Strange's cause of death was, indeed, water intoxication, according to The Sacramento Bee. As a result of her death, 10 employees of 107.9 (KDND-FM) were fired.
After Carrington's death, his story appeared everywhere - television, magazines and newspapers - and news outlets from all over approached Smith.
"I just got a call from London," Smith said.
After her son was a victim of such a rare death, she didn't think it was possible that someone didn't know about the dangers of drinking too much water. But, apparently, some of the contestants were unaware.
"I thought it was just water," one contestant told The San Francisco Chronicle. "I thought that it would just flush out my body. I just assumed that because it was a contest, everything would be checked out."
Before the contest started, a female DJ was heard on an audio recording saying, "Maybe we should have researched this before."
After countless hours of getting the word out to media outlets about her son's death, Smith said she thought she did a good enough job of letting people in Northern California know the dangers of water intoxication.
She was right, for the most part. The DJs were actually aware of Carrington's death. They were just simply careless.
Before the event started, someone in the studio mentioned "that poor kid in college," but another DJ responded that Carrington "was doing other things."
One DJ asked, "Can't you get water poisoning and die?"
Another chuckled and said, "Your body is 98 percent water. Why can't you take in as much water as you want?"
When a caller, who went by Eva, called in to warn the DJs about the potential of someone dying from drinking too much water, one wittingly responded, "We're aware of that."
Another DJ joked, "They signed releases, so we're not responsible."
The DJs made other cruel jokes. Although they were laughing then, no one's laughing now, especially not Smith.
"It's an insult to my son, an insult to me," she said.
Since her son's death, Smith formed a six-person group called Matt's Committee, with the main goal of informing others about Carrington's story.
"I won't let Matt's death be in vain," she said.
She was recently approached by the Every 15 Minutes program to tell high school students about water intoxication.
"We gotta take baby steps," Smith said.
With Strange's death, the dangers of drinking excessive amounts of water will likely spark more awareness, Smith said.
But someone else died.
"What do we have to do to get through to people?" Smith said. "How many more people have to die?"
Mando Navarro can be reached at mnavarro@theorion.com
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