A family in Ohio, USA is grieving the loss of their two-year-old boy after he snuck away when his mother was sleeping and drowned in a neighbor’s pool.
According to police officials, the little boy left the house while his mother was asleep on October 4. He was later found at the bottom of his neighbour’s pool and taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Police were called to the area, just an hour before the boy was found for a child left unattended. They told the boy’s mother to be more careful.
The boy’s father said he’d remember Marcus Anthony Hall also known as Mar Mar – by his smile.
‘He was a cool little dude,’ the child’s father, Anthony Hall, said of his two-year-old son, who had just celebrated his birthday in July.
On Tuesday, October 3, Hall was at work while Marcus and his four-year-old brother were home alone with their mother.
He said the children went outside their Oregon, Ohio, home while their mom was asleep.
At 10.34am, a neighbour spotted one of the boys and called 911, telling dispatchers: ‘There’s a baby outside in just a diaper chasing a dog. There’s no adults.’
An officer arrived and told the mother to be more careful. He recommended that she consider installing safety devices.
At 11.27am – less than an hour later – Oregon police received a second call from the mother.
‘I got woken up to the cops over here knocking on my door because they said that kids were running around outside, so when I woke up, only my 4-year-old here,’ she said.
‘So your two-year-old is missing? the dispatcher asked.
‘Yeah,’ the woman replied.
Police Officers returned to the scene and found the two-year-old drowning in the neighbour’s pool.
Marcus drowned in a white above-ground pool with a small ladder. While the yard was fenced in, the pool itself did not have a fence around it.
A complaint was filed with the city, as every private swimming pool must be enclosed by a fence under Ohio state law. It is currently unclear if charges have been filed against the mom or the neighbour to date.
Children Services is investigating the circumstances surrounding the boy’s death, police said.
A funeral service is set for October 10.
