Horrifying details emerge as girl, 8, dies after being sucked into Texas hotel pool pipe: ‘Body was wedged in there’
Aliyah Lynette Jaico died after being "violently sucked" into piping at a hotel swimming pool in Houston, Texas
An eight-year-old girl recently died after being "violently sucked" into piping at a hotel swimming pool in Houston, Texas. Aliyah Lynette Jaico died while spending time with her family at the DoubleTree hotel on March 23.
An expert from a search and rescue team who viewed the video surveillance of the incident has now described the horror. Jaico dipped under the water never to resurface, following which her mother, Daniela Jaico, reported her missing.
Tim Miller, from the rescue team Texas Equusearch, said, “You could see her little head go down, and never been seen again, so it was pretty obvious something happened and she never got out of the pool."
Jaico was an avid swimmer. Her body was discovered the morning after the day she was reported missing. Rescue divers saw her hand inside a pool pipe using poles with cameras attached to them.
"How her body was wedged in there, actually shut the pump, shut that suction off. There really wasn't any suction. Her little body was all the way to the motor, so it took her in a good distance,” Miller said.
Miller said that the pipe had recently been repaired. "If that pump was wired wrong, that would create the pipe was blowing water out to suck in. Right beside there, there was another pipe with a grate on it. That's the one that's supposed to be sucking in, because it's basically a circulation pump,” he said, according to The Mirror.
The family accuses the hotel
It was revealed that when Jaico’s mom wanted to see the surveillance video, the hotel simply refused to reveal it. "There was a lot of time wasted. Things at the hotel could have been done a lot better,” their attorney said.
According to KPRC 2, Jaico drowned and suffered from “mechanical asphyxiation,” the Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office said. After the incident, inspectors directed that the pool be closed upon finding various violations. “Operator failed to obtain a pre-opening inspection prior to placing the pool into operation after a remodel,” an investigator wrote in a three-page inspection report.
“[It] appears right now the pump was put in there, and it was probably malfunctioning because of the open pipe that she ended up in was supposed to be pushing water out,” Miller explained.
“And right beside that pipe, there was another pipe that actually had a big plastic filter-like screen on the front that’s supposed to be sucking water in,” Miller continued. “So I know there was one speculation last night from somebody that knows quite a bit and everything that the pump was wired wrong. So it was sucking instead of pushing.”
Jaico’s family has now filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the hotel and its parent companies. They have been accused of gross negligence. The family has sought over $1 million in damages.
“We are seeking justice for Aliyah because this could have been avoidable,” the family’s attorney Richard Nava told ABC 7. “Everybody knows this could have been avoidable.”
“All the evidence is going to point to this hotel (running) an establishment with many violations,” he added. “The pool was not in working order.”