SANTA ANA : Tongan Parents of Dead Boy Seek Visa

The parents of a 2-year-old boy who drowned over the weekend are “desperately trying to come here” from their native Tonga, an aunt said, but permission to travel could take weeks or months, according to officials.

Alexander Tafuna was playing Friday in the back yard of his grandmother’s house, where he lived, when he opened a wrought-iron gate that was supposed to be locked and slipped into the family pool, which was partly filled with rain water and debris.

His parents, 28-year-old Inoke and 21-year-old Sita Tafuna, have been at the American Embassy in Fiji all weekend in an effort to travel here, the family said.

The consul at the embassy there, Charles Luoma-Overstreet, said he could not comment specifically on the couple’s case because of privacy rules. But in general, he said, parents of an American-born child must show his birth certificate, which must then be verified at the regional office in Manila before the parents may get visas to travel to the United States.

“Just mailing it from here to the right offices can take a long time,” Luoma-Overstreet said.

Frances Tuakalan, 26, an aunt of Alexander, said Alexander’s parents want desperately to come here. “They want to see their little boy before he is buried,” she said.

Rescuers were called to the home of Olivia Haunga, 52, in the 3600 block of Sunswept Avenue about 4:30 p.m. Friday, police said. Alexander was taken to Children’s Hospital of Orange County in Orange in critical condition, and he died at 1 a.m. Saturday.

Alexander was the second child in the extended family to drown in that pool.

In March, 1988, a cousin, Citizen Tasila, 1 1/2, fell into the pool, then near-empty, family members and coroner’s officials said.

Haunga, Alexander’s grandmother, said through family interpreters Monday that she had wanted to fill the pool with dirt but that it would cost too much. Instead, she built a fence around it. Haunga said she could not remember what it would cost to fill the pool nor what she paid for the fence.

After the first death, the pool had not been filled for swimming, relatives said. On Monday, two empty milk cartons were floating in several feet of water from the recent rain.

Alexander had apparently lost a toy in the pool and was trying to retrieve it, family members said.

“The gate’s usually locked,” Tuakalan said. “I guess it was opened then, because the little boy got through.”

Haunga was in Oregon Friday when the accident happened. Her daughter Martha, 16, was baby-sitting Alexander and two nieces that afternoon.

“I was inside when my niece screamed for me,” Martha Haunga said. “I ran out back and saw him in the water. It was horrible. I climbed in to get him out.”

Juvenile investigators will check the pool area for any code violations, Santa Ana Police Sgt. Art Echternacht said.

“Unfortunately, if nothing violates safety codes, there’s not much we can do,” he said.

Alexander was the 16th child under 4 years of age to drown in a pool this year in Orange County, coroner’s officials said.

Alexander was born in Santa Ana. His parents took him last winter back to Tonga, a country of about 150 islands nearly 3,000 miles southwest of Honolulu in the South Pacific.

In the islands, however, the child was continually ill because he could not get used to the air and food there, relatives said. He was flown back to Santa Ana in February to live with his grandmother.

“We’re all taking it hard because we all loved that little boy,” Tuakalan said. “We shared everything we had with him because his parents weren’t here.”

Alexander had five aunts and four uncles in Orange County, Tuakalan said.