Texas: An Eight-year-old girl in the United States died after being sucked into a large pipe while swimming at a hotel pool in Houston on Saturday. Aliyah Jaico was swimming with her family in a lazy river at the Double Tree by Hilton Houston Brookhollow Hotel when she suddenly disappeared, Fox News reported. Hours later, her body was found “inside a large pipe in the pool area,” Houston police said in a statement.
“Her poor little body was contorted when she was sucked into this hole and pipe 20 feet back,” the family’s attorney, Richard Nava, stated to reporters during a press conference. According to Fox News, Mr. Nava said, “They had to break up concrete and cut pipe to extract her… it was horrific.”
The little girl was allegedly abruptly drawn into a 12 to 16-inch unguarded open space in the swimming pool flow system, according to the lawsuit. When she first vanished, her family conducted a desperate search as they had no idea where she had gone. She was reported missing at approximately 5:45 p.m. on Saturday, according to the police. She was discovered about 11:30 p.m., and paramedics declared her dead, according to police, who added that they were “continuing to investigate the incident”.
The family filed the complaint earlier this week and is requesting $1 million in damages for wrongful death. The 8-year-old “loved to swim,” the lawsuit claims, and her mother, Jose Daniela Jaico Ahumada, had booked a room at the hotel for the day “to enjoy a day of swimming with her family”. “The fire department needed thirteen hours to extract her body from the pipe,” stated Justin Martinez, a spokesman for the Jaico family and the Nava Law Group.
Separately, Nava claimed that Aliyah was drawn into what the lawsuit refers to as an “unsecured open gap” because of “an issue with the flow of the water” within the pool. He said that to recover the 8-year-old’s body, the fire brigade had to “break up” the concrete pipe, which was roughly 12 to 16 inches wide.
Nava remarked, “We are seeking justice for Aliyah because this could have been avoidable,” and noted that her death had “devastated” her loved ones. The lawsuit states that Unique Crowne Hospitality LLC is the hotel’s operator.
