Heartbreak as Arizona father finds three-year-old twin girls drowned in backyard swimming pool
- According to police, the family tried to resuscitate the children
- The twins were pronounced dead at a nearby hospital
- Police said the tragic incident is consistent with an accidental drowning
Police have released the names of the twin toddlers who tragically died after their father pulled their lifeless bodies from their backyard pool in Arizona.
The three-year-old girls – Valentina and Penalapi Ruiz – died in hospital on Thursday, officials said.
“Preliminary information indicates that this incident is consistent with an accidental drowning,” Phoenix police said in a statement Friday. “At this time, there is nothing that investigators have found that appears suspicious.”
Police on Friday identified the two toddlers who drowned in their family’s backyard pool in Phoenix, Arizona. Valentina and Penalapi Ruiz, 3, were rushed to a hospital where they were pronounced dead
Fire department officials said the twins’ father called 911
Phoenix Fire Chief Rob McDade said the twins’ father was the one who called 911.
McDade added that the toddlers were underwater for an “indefinite amount of time” before help arrived.
It took first responders less than three minutes to reach the home at 63rd Avenue and Lower Buckeye Road and found family members administering CPR to the twins.
The girls were rushed to a nearby hospital, where they were pronounced dead, officials said.
Phoenix Fire Chief Rob McDade said it was “a tragic scene” as family members tried to revive the children as first responders arrived at the home
Phoenix police said the tragic incident is consistent with an accidental drowning
The backyard pool had no fencing around it
Aerial photos of the three-bedroom home showed a kidney-shaped swimming pool with no fencing around it.
“You can imagine what that would look like, how taxing that would be,” McDade told local CBS 5 News. ‘An extremely tragic scene.’