Jacksonville police: 4-year-old girl found dead in retention pond in Argyle Forest

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Police have confirmed a 4-year-old girl drowned in a retention pond in Argyle Forest on Monday.

Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Assistant Chief Shawn Coarsey called the drowning “a tragic accident.”

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Officers first responded to reports of a missing person near the 8000 block of Shadwell Court, which is off Argyle Forest Boulevard.

Police said the child was playing in her yard while her mother was gardening. When the mother looked up, the child was gone.

Neighbors were able to provide police with video surveillance footage that broke down the timeline of the morning’s events.

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They say around 11:05 a.m., the child was seen leaving her house, crossing the street and entering the yard that attaches to the retention pond.

Within in minutes, her mother is seen on video looking for her.

Police arrived within a half-hour of the child’s disappearance, however, she was not found until 1:30 p.m. Police say the pond had open access to the yard.

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“It was open access, I don’t believe there was a fence. It looked like she was able to skirt the side of the house and get into the pond,” Coarsey said.

Coarsey had one message for parents.

″They can disappear with the snap of a finger so just be diligent and all that and it’s just a tragic accident. We feel for the parents,” Coarsey said.

This is the third young child to drown in a retention pond in Jacksonville in the past two months.

In April, Mohamed Nour, a 5-year-old autistic boy, was found dead in a Jacksonville pond after being reported missing.

At the end of May, Gavin Douyon, a 4-year-old autistic boy who was nonverbal, was found dead in a retention pond. Officials said his family was from out of town and they were visiting friends in the neighborhood.

Other recent deaths in Jacksonville have been attributed to retention ponds.

In February, former Jacksonville Jaguars player Louis Nix III died after his car went into a retention pond. Back in March, a 17-year-old was found dead in a retention pond on the University of North Florida’s campus.

Jacksonville City Council Councilmembers LeAnna Cumber and Ju’Coby Pittman have been working to address the dangers of retention ponds, including looking into physical barriers that would make them more difficult to get into but not impede first responders.

Action News Jax’s Kristen Rary will have a timeline of what happened beginning on FOX30 Action News Jax at 4.

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