MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Witnesses rushed to try to save a young girl who drowned overnight in an indoor hotel pool in Cordova. This as many are asking how the little girl got to the pool in the first place.
Memphis Police said they were called to the Comfort Suites in Cordova shortly after midnight Thursday, June 27, 2024. They said they received a medical call indicating a four-year-old girl had fallen into a swimming pool. She was rushed to the hospital but died from drowning, according to authorities.
Christopher and Amy Chavez told ABC24 they stopped at the hotel early Thursday morning on their way back home to Louisiana and found themselves just feet from the emergency.
“As we were coming in with our luggage we were about to go in the room. The manager came out and said 'Hey, I need you to call 911... little girl drowned in the pool,'" said Christopher Chavez.
“When I heard the manager yelling - I’m CPR trained… and as a mother also - I just took off running,"said Amy Chavez. "I ran down the hall and got to her as fast as I could."
But it was too late.
The couple told ABC24 the four-year-old little girl was only accompanied by her older sister in the pool.
Amy Chavez said she did not see any safety features to keep people out of the pool after its listed closing time of 10 p.m.
“If you pulled it open, it just opened," she said.
Julia Johnson is a water safety expert at the Salvation Army's KROC Center in midtown Memphis. She said 90% of children who drown are supervised by adults.
Johnson said there are several things people can do to prevent accidents like this from happening, such as using a water watcher - a responsible adult who keeps an eye on the children with now distractions, and making sure there are lifeguards and restricting access to unguarded pools.
Johnson said the bottom line is all children should be supervised when swimming, and they should be enrolled in swimming classes to prevent accidents like this.
“We do find that children who participate in... lessons are about 80% less likely to drown," Johnson said.
Family of the victim told ABC24 that the family's home burned down June 12th and that’s why they were in the hotel in the first place.
We reached out to the owner of the hotel with very specific questions about the locking mechanism on the door that leads to the pool, but have yet to receive a response.