BROCKTON (AP) - A two-year-old Brockton girl has drowned in her neighbor's above-ground pool.
Police said the toddler, identified by her family as Yandeliz del Carmen Claudio, wandered over to a neighbor's back yard Sunday night and apparently climbed a three-foot ladder to get into the pool.
Neighbors said they saw the toddler splashing in the pool but thought she was supervised.
"I told my mom that nobody is watching this little girl, she's going fall into the pool and drown," said 15-year-old Natalianna Terry.
It wasn't until someone ran down the street, asking if anyone had seen the girl, that Terry and her mother, Tamiko Terry, realized she wasn't being watched and had fallen in.
"I just don't understand how nobody realized that little girl was gone for that many hours," said Tamiko Terry. "If I knew what I know now, I wish I went over there and got that little girl."
Yandeliz was discovered around 8:30 p.m. and taken to a nearby hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Investigators believe she was in the pool for an hour.
Any pool 24 inches or deeper must have a permit and a
barrier of 48 inches, according to a Brockton building inspector. The pool did not have either.
The district attorney is investigating.
