A young Texas girl at first believed to be missing was found dead after a horrifying accident in a hotel swimming pool. Aliyah Jaico, 8, was swimming with family at a DoubleTree by Hilton hotel in Houston on March 23 when she disappeared. At first, people thought someone at the hotel might have abducted her, but when they reviewed security footage from the evening, they realized the horrible truth.
According to court documents, investigators launched a massive search for the child Saturday evening but were unable to locate her, KPRC reported. They concluded she went into the water and never came back up. Search crews drained the pool and recovered her body trapped in a pipe early the following day.
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Aliyah somehow got stuck in a large pipe.
The family was swimming in a large lazy-river-style pool at the hotel at 12801 Northwest Freeway when they noticed Aliyah was gone. They reported her missing around 5:45 p.m. Saturday.
“She was just nowhere to be found so it was saturated with officers who were looking for her,” Texas EquuSearch Deputy Director Angelina Farris told KPRC.
Per a release from the City of Houston, investigators found her body about 11:30 p.m., and she died in a presumed drowning. An autopsy will be done to confirm her cause of death.
It reportedly took hours to retrieve her body.
The hotel drained the pool and put a camera 20 feet into one of the pipes, according to KTRK. That is where they found Aliyah. Her body was ultimately recovered around 6:30 a.m. Sunday.
“(It) appears right now the pump was put in there, and it was probably malfunctioning because of the open pipe that she ended up in was supposed to be pushing water out,” Tim Miller, founder of Texas EquuSearch, told the news outlet.
“And right beside that pipe, there was another pipe that actually had a big plastic filter like screen on the front that’s supposed to be sucking water in. So I know there was one speculation last night from somebody that knows quite a bit and everything that that the pump was wired wrong. So it was sucking instead of pushing.”
Her family filed a lawsuit.
Aliyah’s family has hired attorney Richard Nava, who filed a wrongful death lawsuit on their behalf, KPRC reported. According to documents obtained by the news outlet, the suit names Unique Crown Hospitality LLC D/B/A DoubleTree by Hilton Houston Brookhollow and Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. as defendants.
The family reportedly asked the hotel to look at surveillance footage 30 minutes after Aliyah disappeared, but staff allegedly refused to do so with police present.
What they saw when they reviewed the tape was apparently disturbing.
Per court documents, search teams were shocked by what they saw.
“A team was then put together to drain the pool and video cameras were attached to 20-foot poles to inspect the pipes when her body was discovered wedged in the pipes of the malfunctioning pool equipment,” the lawsuit states.
“It was unimaginable and even when you’re looking at it, you’re just thinking, ‘surely that’s not what I’m seeing,'” Farris told KPRC.
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The hotel released a statement.
Per the lawsuit, the family is seeking more than $1 million in damages.
The hotel released a statement to KPRC that reads: “Hilton offers our sincere condolences to the family and loved ones in the tragic loss of a young girl at the DoubleTree by Hilton Houston Brookhollow. This property is independently owned and operated by a third party. Hilton does not own, manage, or control the day-to-day operations of the property and does not employ any of the property’s staff or its third-party operators.”
