Parents Warn Of Danger After Their Daughter Is Electrocuted In Family Pool
CITRUS HEIGHTS (CBS13) — Citrus Heights police say a girl just shy of her 10th birthday died Sunday afternoon after she was apparently electrocuted when a pool light malfunctioned.
The accident happened off of Rusch Road at her father's home in Citrus Heights.
McKenzie Kinley's parents say this is a hidden danger that many families don't know about. Their daughter was killed when she was electrocuted in her own family pool by a light in repair underneath the water.
Now her family doesn't want others to go through this same tragedy.
"She was just a lot of everything," said Kinley's mother, Lisa Moore.
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She said McKenzie was born to be in the water.
"Swimming, fishing, camping, that's what made her happy. That's what her life was about," said her father, Cliff Kinley.
On Sunday, when McKenzie wanted to go for a swim in her dad's backyard pool on a hot day, "I said, 'okay, baby, you go swimming,'" Cliff Kinley said.
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Cliff was out for an errand, so his girlfriend was watching McKenzie and four other kids in the pool. That's when Kinley received the worst phone call of his life.
"'They're doing chest compressions right now, and we don't know what happened.' It was the most devastating phone call I've ever received," he said.
But the fire department couldn't save McKenzie's life. Police say a light fixture in the pool was in the process of being repaired and wasn't sealed exposing McKenzie to the current.
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"As much as we know, she grabbed the pool light, and it electrocuted her," Cliff Kinley said. "Thank goodness it didn't get anyone else, because there were four other children in that pool."
Now, McKenzie's family wants others to know about these dangers in your pool, so no one else has to lose a child.
"If nothing comes from losing my daughter, at least this could save others," said Moore.
The family has created a GoFundMe page to cover funeral costs. You can find that link here.