Eight-year-old Aliyah Jaico’s body was found at the DoubleTree hotel in Houston, Texas, after her family reported her missing on Saturday at 5:45 pm.
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“We mobilized a lot of people. We had people actually searching outside and in different rooms and everything,” Tim Miller, the founder of Texas EquuSearch, told local ABC affiliate KTRK.
Houston police described the pool at the hotel as a “lazy river-style swimming pool.”
The little girl was said to have gone underwater and never returned, with her body found wedged inside a narrow pipe, according to search and rescue teams.
Jaico’s preliminary cause of death was “drowning and mechanical asphyxia.” The tragedy is believed to have been an accident.
To find her, the pool had to be drained and a small remote camera was attached to a pole and sent almost 20 feet into the pipes.
Equipped with the camera and a scent-tracking bloodhound, rescuers made the gruesome discovery around 11:30 pm.
Miller said they believed the pipe had malfunctioned and had sucked water in instead of pumping it out like it was supposed to.
After locating the body it took 13 hours to retrieve the small girl.
“Many of us had to wipe tears from our eyes,” Miller said.
“I never, ever thought in a million years it was going to end up as bad as it ended up…there is a grieving family out there, and it is going to be a long, painful healing process over this one.”
After the news of Jaico’s death, her mother Daniela Jaico, shared a heartbreaking photo of her daughter on Facebook, captioning it “our last photo,” in Spanish.
“They say we all have our destiny marked…but I can’t understand why yours was like this,” Daniela wrote in Spanish.
“Thank you, my love, for the eight years you gave me by your side. Thank you, my girl, for teaching me what love is and a noble heart.”
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Daniella continued to post a series of her daughter’s baby photos to social media.
“I hope to see you again one day and you’ll keep looking at me and you’ll get that big smile that was contagious with joy,” she wrote.
“You gave yourself to love always with your heart so noble. I will love you for all eternity.
“You are the most beautiful thing God has given me and after every battle we went through together we didn’t win this one.”
After the tragedy, the family hired attorney Richard Nava who announced that he had filed a wrongful death suit on behalf of Jaico’s family, NBC affiliate KPRC reported.
The lawsuit alleges that the hotel’s gross negligence led to the death of the eight-year-old girl.
It continues to claim that Jaico’s family tried to get hotel management to look at security footage 30 minutes after she went missing, but they refused.
Allegedly, management told the family that law enforcement had to be present to view the surveillance footage.
Jaico’s loved ones are now seeking over $1 million in damages, according to the lawsuit. A jury trial has also been requested.
The U.S. Sun has reached out to Richard Nava and The Hilton for comment.