Four-year-old dies in hotel pool in Milano Marittima – father and operators under suspicion

Chronology of the afternoon

At around 2:00 p.m., the father left the child for about ten minutes and asked his daughter to wait for him in the play corner. "At about 2:00 p.m., the father also went up to the room for about ten minutes, after having asked his daughter to wait for him in the play corner," according to the public prosecutor's office.

During this period, according to the current state of the investigation, the girl made her way unnoticed from the play area to the pool. "Surveillance camera footage showed how the girl then went down the stairs from the hotel to the pool area on her own and reached the access to the swimming pool." How the girl ultimately ended up in the water did not emerge from the camera footage.

According to further judicial sources, access to the pool was "apparently open or not secured in such a way that the four-year-old would have been prevented from reaching the water." The pool area is shielded from the street by a privacy screen wall; the water depth ranges between 70 and 150 centimeters.

Rescue attempts and witness statements

Two teenage hotel guests discovered the motionless child in the water and reacted immediately. "The two teenagers pulled the child out of the pool and called for help." A doctor among the hotel guests immediately began resuscitation measures, "which were subsequently continued by emergency services." A young witness later recalled: "We initially thought a doll was floating in the pool."

According to the current state of the investigation, the pool was closed at the time of the incident, and no lifeguard was on duty. The girl's father, who according to judicial sources "had been spending his vacations at the hotel in question repeatedly since his childhood days," initially returned to Austria with his wife and the two other daughters and traveled back to Ravenna on Monday.

Investigations against father and hotel operators

The investigations have been extended beyond the father. "In addition to the 56-year-old father of – who, incidentally, had been spending his vacations at the hotel in question repeatedly since his childhood days – and against whom an investigation is being conducted for failure to supervise – the two operators of the Continental are now also the focus of the investigation." The two men, aged 58 and 68, are accused of manslaughter according to judicial sources: "who are accused of manslaughter, according to judicial sources."

At the center of the investigation, according to the public prosecutor's office, is the question of "whether the pool area was properly secured." An autopsy of the child has been ordered for Wednesday. "The autopsy is accordingly scheduled for Wednesday, commissioned by the public prosecutor's office of Ravenna."

Background: Hotel Continental in Milano Marittima

Milano Marittima is a well-known seaside resort on the northern Italian Adriatic coast in the province of Ravenna. The Hotel Continental is located in the district near Cervia. The investigations by the local public prosecutor's office are ongoing.

After the incident, the Austrian family cut their vacation short. The background of the tragedy – in particular the question of how the girl found her way to the pool and got into the water despite the father's request to wait – is to be further clarified by the ongoing investigations, the autopsy, and the evaluation of the video footage.