According to police, two Sanford, Florida, parents have been accused of manslaughter after their 3-year-old child was discovered floating in a pond near their apartment.
Saturday at 3:15 p.m., the Sanford Police Department responded to allegations of a missing 3-year-old boy at the Crosby at Towne Centre apartments, according to FOX 35 in Orlando.
The boy was diagnosed with autism, and his father, Lester Ortiz, reported being last seen thirty minutes before law enforcement arrived.
At approximately 12:40 p.m., the boy’s mother, Barbara Luiz, told officers that her son was in the apartment’s living room while she was in the restroom.
At one point, the mother reported hearing a door open and close, prompting her adolescent daughter to investigate, as reported by the station.
However, the teenager was unaware that the toddler had fled and the child’s parents began seeking him.
Investigators discovered the toddler had previously gone missing at least three times, and each time a neighbour located him and brought him to the development’s front office.
FOX 4 reported that police said the apartment smelled of “freshly smoked marijuana” and was “in a state of disarray.”
Shortly after their arrival, detectives observed an “unknown object” in a nearby pond behind the apartment and realised it was the missing child.
Both Luiz and Ortiz were detained and charged with aggravated child manslaughter.
The Seminole County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for Ortiz’s detention photo.
