Members of three generations of the same East Brunswick family were found dead in an East Brunswick pool on Monday afternoon, after a neighbor heard them scream, authorities said.
An 8-year-old girl, her 32-year-old mother and a 68-year-old grandfather were found dead in the backyard pool at her Clearwater Road home on Monday afternoon, police said. It is unclear exactly how they died and their names have not been released.
Police were called to the house around 4:20 pm when a neighbor heard screaming and thought someone had fallen, Lt. Frank Sutter said at a press conference on Monday afternoon.
“We think the mother was asking for help from inside the pool,” Sutter said. All three were pronounced dead at the scene.
A different neighbor said that the police first came to his next door home, mistakenly thinking that the call had come from his home. She told NJ Advance Media that she did not hear any screams because she was on a conference call.
“I went out to my back deck and saw the EMS guy jump into the water, and I saw the woman being pulled out, and they started working on them,” said the neighbor, who did not want to give her name. In five minutes, the block was filled with police cars and ambulances, he said.
The unidentified family moved into the home about two weeks ago, the next-door neighbor told NJ Advance Media. The online photos of the house when it was listed for sale include an above ground pool with an attached terrace, but separate from the house.
People who left the house on Tuesday morning refused to speak to a journalist.
A swimming pool company had been in the house for the past few weeks opening the pool for the season and nothing seemed out of the ordinary with the pool, the neighbor said.
“It is just horrible. It is tragic, ”she said.
Sutter said more information will be available once the autopsies are completed. ABC6 reported that an electrician was called to the home shortly after his death.
A spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office said no further information was available Tuesday morning.
“The entire East Brunswick community is shocked and saddened to learn of the three deaths yesterday in the Frost section of the township,” East Brunswick Mayor Brad Cohen said in a statement sent to NJ Advance Media. “Our condolences are with the family and that they find the strength of the community that shares their pain.”
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