A toddler found dead in her home was likely the victim of her father’s harsh punishment for bed-wetting, according to police.

Newspaper carrier Jericho Wright told police his 3-year-old daughter, Liadan Eva Wright, struck her head when he threw her into a shower on Sunday afternoon after she wet her bed.

He says the girl was fine when he put her to bed that evening. But when he returned from a round of delivering papers just before dawn, he found his daughter cold and stiff.

Wright called the police about 12 hours later, after waking up from a drinking-induced stupor.

Police described Wright as an independent contractor who delivered the Merced Sun-Star and Los Banos Enterprise. He had no prior arrests.

He was being held without bail on a murder charge Thursday in the Merced County Jail.