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8 months ago
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The grieving family of the eight-year-old girl tragically sucked into a Hilton swimming pool pipe are suing the hotel chain for $1million.
Aliyah Jaico, 8, vanished Saturday while swimming in a lazy river with several family members at the DoubleTree by Hilton Houston Brookhollow, Attorney Richard Nava explained Tuesday during a press conference.
Through lawyers today, her family announced a lawsuit against Hilton and the local operators of the hotel, seeking $1 million in damages.
'We believe that Ayliah was violently sucked in the hole that was 12 to 16 inches wide,' said family attorney Richard Nava, who added she couldn't have swam in there on her own.
'Her poor little body was contoured when she was sucked into this hole and pipe 20 feet back. Her body was inside of the motor when she had to be extracted. They had to break up concrete in order to extract her, cut pipe. It was absolutely horrific.’
Aliyah Jaico is pictured posing by a pool. The girl's 'little hand and part of her body' were the first to appear, having been 'wedged' deep inside the pipe, authorities said
Their last photo: Aliyah Jaico, eight, is pictured with her mother Daniela Jaico in a final photo believed to have been taken at the pool where she died
An eight-year-old girl died after being sucked into a swimming pool pipe (pictured) at the DoubleTree by Hilton Houston Brookhollow
Just before the drowning, Nava detailed how Aliyah might have been helping her five-year-old sister, who was also in the pool and possibly also getting sucked into the same pipe that ultimately claimed her sister's life.
A 13-year-old relative stepped in to help the five-year-old and prevent her from drowning.
Once the chaos stopped, her family realized Aliyah was missing.
Her mom, Daniela Jaico, immediately reported her missing. When the distraught mom asked to see hotel surveillance video, the hotel refused, Nava claimed.
‘There was a lot of time wasted. Things at the hotel could have been done a lot better,' Nava said.
Little Aliyah Jaico's cause of death was 'drowning and mechanical asphyxia' and appeared to be an accident
The Houston Fire Department retrieved the eight-year-old's body after a 13-hour effort
Tributes poured in for the little girl, who is pictured in her earlier years
The swimming pool at DoubleTree by Hilton Houston Brookhollow
Tim Miller of Texas Equusearch said poles with cameras were deployed into the water to search pipes where Aliyah's body was located
It wasn't until the mom called in search and rescue team Texas Equusearch, that the video was shown to police and rescuers.
‘You could see her little head go down, and never been seen again, so it was pretty obvious something happened and she never got out of the pool,' Tim Miller of Texas Equusearch, who saw the video, described.
Described as an avid swimmer, Aliyah was reported missing around 6 p.m., but her mangled body wasn't recovered until 7 a.m. the next day after rescue divers used poles with cameras attached to them and spotted her little hand inside of a pool pipe.
‘How her body was wedged in there, actually shut the pump, shut that suction off. There really wasn’t any suction. Her little body was all the way to the motor, so it took her in a good distance,' Miller said.
Multiple violations were found by the Houston Fire Department when a team inspected the swimming pool Monday, reported the local ABC station.
The girl was initially reported missing, but rescue teams reviewed security footage and determined that she had gone underwater and never resurfaced
Aliyah Jaico (right) is pictured playing in the water on a separate vacation
The pool had recently under gone repairs, Miller revealed.
‘If that pump was wired wrong, that would create the pipe was blowing water out to to suck in,' he stated.
'Right beside there, there was another pipe with a grate on it. That’s the one that’s supposed to be sucking in, because it’s basically a circulation pump.’
The lawsuit also includes a restraining order, forcing the hotel to give Aliyah's family and lawyers access to the pool, which they are currently refusing, Nava disclosed.
According to the Harris County Institute of Forensic Science, the girl's preliminary cause of death was 'drowning and mechanical asphyxia' and appeared to be an accident.
While Daniela Jaico is not speaking to the media right now, she did share a heartbreaking selfie taken at the pool to Facebook, captioning it 'our last photo.'
'They say we all have our destiny marked...but I can't understand why yours was like this,' Jaico 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.'
A public viewing for the girl will take place Thursday at Funeral De Angel in Houston from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
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