The toddler’s father searched for her for several minutes before finding her in the family’s backyard pool, according to police
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NEED TO KNOW
Viomara Laura Ortiz, 2, died after being found in her family’s backyard pool on July 27
Her father told police he searched for the toddler for several minutes after she ran off while he was changing
Video evidence showed Viomara had been in the pool for approximately eight minutes before her father found her, authorities said
A 2-year-old girl died after she wandered into her family’s backyard swimming pool while her father was searching for her, authorities in Tennessee said.
Viomara Laura Ortiz was preparing to go swimming with her father at their home on Sadler Avenue on Monday, July 27, when she ran off while he was changing, according to the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department.
Her father told authorities that the pair had planned to swim around 6 p.m. and that he spent several minutes looking for his daughter after realizing she was gone.
He eventually found Viomara in the backyard pool, according to police.
Video evidence later showed that the toddler had been in the water for approximately eight minutes before her father discovered her, authorities said.
Her father performed CPR before taking Viomara to the nearest fire hall. She was then transported to Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital, where she died, according to police.
Detectives with the department’s Youth Services Division are following up on what authorities described as an apparent accidental drowning.
As authorities investigated, neighbors across the street recalled seeing emergency vehicles fill Sadler Avenue and remain there until the early morning hours Tuesday, according to WSMV.
“At first it was one and then it was two, and then we looked outside again and the whole street was filled,” one neighbor, who did not want to be identified, told the outlet.
“Yeah, there was like a big van and a smaller van,” another neighbor told WSMV.
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The neighbors said they did not initially know what had brought the emergency response to the home.
After learning that a young child had died, one neighbor described feeling shaken by the news.
“That makes me sick to my stomach. I had no idea there was a pool over there, let alone a younger baby or child,” the neighbor told WSMV.
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