Grieving mom speaks, police look at how boy ended up in Fort Lauderdale pool
FORT LAUDERDALE - Police want to know how an eight-year-old boy got into a stranger's backyard pool and if the child was alone when he drowned Monday afternoon.
Investigators ruled Ryan Amichette's death an accident. However, police continue to look into the circumstances that left the child's family heartbroken.
"I can't sleep," Figenie Dugard, Amichette's mother said. "He loved me."
Dugard asked someone she knows to pick Amichette up from school Monday afternoon, she said. Dugard had to work. The friend did not find Ryan on his school's campus, Dugard said. The friend found Amichette outside a nearby Walgreens store, Dugard said.
"(She) called Ryan (but) Ryan (didn't) come back," Dugard said.
"(The friend) said she saw him walking down the street and she turned around and she was calling him," Gibson Severe, Amichette's brother said Monday. "I was like why she didn't grab his hand or nothing like that."
Loved ones searched several blocks without finding Amichette, loved ones said. They then noticed police cruisers drive by.
A man who does not know Amichette or Dugard's family called 911 and said he found "a little kid at the bottom of my pool."
Paramedics tried to revive the child but could not.
"They were working on him but we didn't know what his condition was," Charles Baity, a neighbor said Monday. "It's very sad."
Dugard later met with police who asked for a photo of Amichette.
"After police (saw the photo), police say yes this is your son that they found in the pool," Dugard said.
Her family has not yet finalized funeral arrangements.
