A mother and grandfather who drowned in their backyard pool in New Jersey a week ago were trying to rescue an 8-year-old girl who had fallen, police said. Bharat Patel, 62, her daughter-in-law Nisha Patel, 33, and their 8-year-old daughter were. found does not respond in the above-ground pool on the afternoon of June 22 by East Brunswick police responding to a 911 call from neighbors who heard screaming.
East Brunswick Lt. Frank Sutter said the young woman had fallen into the pool and that her grandfather and mother were trying to save her when they, too, began to drown, CBS New York reported.
Prosecutors and Middlesex County Police said that while the above-ground pool was shallow at 3 1/2 feet deep, one part of the pool was 7 feet deep and “the victims did not appear to know how to swim.” .
CBS New York
Real estate listings show that the group was already in place when the Patel family bought the house in April, NJ.com reported. Neighbors told CBS New York that the family had just moved into the home about a month ago.
“It is painful. It is painful,” neighbor Yamini Patel told the station.
The county’s regional medical examiner determined that the cause of death was drowning and determined that the form of death was accidental for all three victims. Police and prosecutors previously said electricity played no role in their deaths
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