Corona Girl, 23 Months, Drowns in Yorba Linda

A 23-month-old Corona girl apparently drowned in her grandmother’s pool in Yorba Linda early Sunday afternoon, authorities said.

The toddler, Roz Saidi, had been dropped off at the house in the 5600 block of Smokey Mountain Way to be cared for by the grandmother, said Lt. Clyde Wason of the Brea Police Department, which patrols Yorba Linda.

Wason said the child, who would have turned 2 in April, and the grandmother were in the same room when the grandmother’s attention was distracted momentarily. The child slipped away.

The grandmother went looking for the girl and found her in the pool just before 1 p.m., Wason said. The toddler was taken by paramedics to Kaiser Permanente Anaheim Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.

The grandmother also was taken to the hospital after fainting, Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Kirk Summers said.

Summers said the pool had no barriers that would have prevented the girl from tumbling in--a key element in pool safety.

“If you have a child and a pool, you need to have barriers,” Summers said.

Wason said the parents showed up at the hospital, though he was uncertain how they learned of the drowning. The family could not be reached for comment.

The Orange County coroner’s office plans to do an autopsy to determine the cause of death.

“This is a tragedy to everyone that it touches,” Wason said. “This is one of the worst, profoundly sad kind of issues we deal with.”