By Micheal Chukwuebuka, Reporting
HOUSTON police are investigating the death of an 8-year-old girl whose body was found inside a large pipe for a lazy river at a Houston hotel where, according to reports, she had been swimming with her family.
Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences ruled Aliyah Jaico’s death on Saturday as an accidental drowning.
It said she died from drowning and mechanical asphyxia, when an object or physical force stops someone from breathing. Her autopsy report is pending.
According to the police, the girl was found inside a large pipe in the pool area and was pronounced dead by paramedics.
A lawsuit filed Monday against the hotel by her mother, Jose Daniela Jaico Ahumada, alleges that the child was sucked into an unsecured opening in the pool’s flow system that was 12 inches to 16 inches wide.
“They had to break up concrete in order to extract her, cut pipe, it was absolutely horrific,” Richard Nava, her mother’s attorney, said at a news conference on Tuesday.
The family was staying at the Doubletree by Hilton Houston Brookhollow, which is named as a defendant in the lawsuit along with Hilton Worldwide Holdings.
A Hilton spokesperson said they were deeply saddened by the girl’s death and noted that the property is independently owned and operated by a third party.
The spokesperson also said that Hilton had not been served with a lawsuit and doesn’t comment on pending litigation.
Ahumada said in the lawsuit that she had rented the room so her family could enjoy a day of swimming, an activity Aliyah loved.
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