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Two Missing California Toddlers Found Dead In Neighbor’s Swimming Pool

By Trisha Faulkner
Published on: 05:43 PST, Sep 20, 2016

A California family’s world turned upside down when their two toddlers disappeared from their home while being watched by their great grandmother. KTAR News reports the 2-year-old girl and 3-year-old boy from California were believed to have gotten out of their home sometime Monday morning while their great grandmother was watching them.

The Daily Mail reports the family spent roughly an hour searching for the California toddlers before calling the police for assistance. The toddlers were later discovered in the next door neighbor’s pool where they had drowned. The Daily Mail also reports the police have said that foul play is not suspected in this tragic accident.

The California toddlers were playing in a room that had access to the garage. It is believed they used an open vehicle door to get out of the home. The toddlers are believed to have walked to the next-door neighbor’s house, entered her yard through an open gate, and then climbed or squeezed through the four-foot-high rod iron fence that was surrounding the pool.

The parents of the California toddlers who have died go to work in the morning. The great grandmother watches the toddlers while the parents are at work. The garage door appeared to have been left up a little bit and the children appeared to have woken up and gotten out of the house before the grandmother was awake. The family did confirm the 3-year-old knows how to open doors and that may have been how the two got out of the home.

According to the police officer investigating, there were a few bikes propped up on the fence surrounding the pool. It is possible the toddlers from California used the bikes to climb over the fence. It is also possible they just squeezed through the gaps in the fence.

The great grandmother of the toddlers as well as a few other relatives were home at the time of the accident. The great grandmother discovered the toddlers were missing around 10 a.m. when she went to check on them. It is believed that the toddlers got out of the home sometime between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. Family members spent roughly an hour searching the neighborhood for the California toddlers before calling the police at a few minutes before 11 a.m. to file an official claim.

Elizabeth Valle, who lived next door to the family and California toddlers, found the children in her pool after a police officer asked if he could take a look around her backyard to see if the children were there. Valle claims to have screamed before jumping into the pool to get to the toddlers. One of the police officers in her yard also jumped in the pool after the children.

The boy was floating at the top of the pool, while the girl was found at the bottom of the pool. Both officers and paramedics made attempts to revive the toddlers, who were then rushed to the hospital. They were pronounced dead on arrival. The investigators believe both toddlers were under water for between 15 to 20 minutes before they were discovered by the neighbor and the police officer.

According to the neighbor, this is not the first time these two California toddlers had gotten loose in her backyard. She claims to have found them unattended in her backyard roughly six months ago. She went on to say she took them back to their parents, and while the parents apologized, they didn’t seem too concerned about the incident.

Is this tragic incident something that could have been prevented? Would these California toddlers still be alive if someone had called the cops when they first noticed they were missing instead of waiting an hour to do so? Share your thoughts in the comments.

[Featured Image by Artazum/ShutterStock]

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