12-year-old boy accidentally hangs himself on a backyard swing

MISSOURI (WITI) -- A 12-year-old boy is dead after he accidentally hanged himself on a swing in his backyard on Friday evening, September 12th.

FOX6's sister station, FOX2 in St. Louis reports Ethan Ivinson had come home from school on Friday afternoon -- and the boy was planning on going back to school later that evening for a school dance.

"He was helping his dad do some chores in the backyard. He was planning to go to a school dance that evening and was doing extra chores so he could go to the dance," Police Chief William Carson told FOX2.

It was when the boy's dad went inside to take a phone call that the boy began spinning on a swing fashioned from a child's pumpkin seat suspended by ropes hanging from a high tree branch.

Ethan's father was trying to give his son CPR when emergency crews arrived.

The boy had just started the seventh grade.

A GoFundMe.com account has been set up to help the family with funeral costs.

CLICK HERE for more on this story via FOX2Now.com.