4-year-old girl found dead in apartment complex retention pond; Man's body found in river
A 4-year-old is believed to have drowned over the weekend after being reported missing by her family and then being found in an apartment complex retention pond that did not have fencing around it.
Esther Mutivito was last seen around 2:30 p.m. Friday in the area of Le Marie Court and Morse Road on the city's Northeast Side. There were concerns because Ester was non-verbal.
Not the first tragedy:Police identify 9-year-old developmentally disabled Columbus girl who drowned in apartment complex pond
The girl was found about 24 hours after she was last seen, around 2:50 p.m. Saturday. She was found in a retention pond in the area of Belcher Drive and Dresden Street, at the Whispering Oaks Apartments.
The apartment complex is about a half mile from where Ester was last reported to have been seen. She was pronounced dead at the scene. No official cause of death has been released.
The retention pond had stones around it, but no fencing.
Esther is the second child to die after being pulled from a retention pond in the last month.
On Aug. 12, a 10-year-old Pataskala boy died after being pulled from a retention pond near his home on Shelter Cove Drive. The boy, who was autistic, had wandered away from home before.
For subscribers:Father of 9-year-old who drowned in retention pond says a fence may have prevented her death
The boy's parents had called police within six minutes of him leaving the home on Aug. 12, however, the boy ended up in the retention pond and drowned. The pond in the Broadmoore Commons community has partial fencing around it.
In August 2021, 9-year-old MarLeah Harber, who had developmental disabilities, drowned after wandering away from her father's apartment on the Southeast Side and getting into a retention pond. The pond in The Cove apartments, where Harber's father lived, did not have a fence or any barrier around it.
Columbus city code requires there to be fencing and locking gates around public and private pools. However, that ordinance does not apply to retention ponds, which are defined as artificial basins that are typically intended to manage the runoff of stormwater and prevent flooding.
More children ages 1–4 die from drowning than any other cause of death except birth defects, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and most of those deaths are in open water, such as retention ponds, versus pools or bathtubs.
Man's body found in Scioto River, no foul play suspected
Shawnreno Ricks, 52, was also found dead in a body of water. Ricks had last been seen running in the area of Scioto Audobon Metro Park near Downtown Columbus around 7:30 p.m. Friday.
His body was found by park rangers around 5 p.m. Sunday in the Scioto River. Ricks was pronounced dead at the scene. His death remains under investigation but foul play is not suspected.
Editor's Note: Due to incorrect information provided by Columbus police, an earlier version of this story misspelled the first name Esther Mutivito, the 4-year-old girl who drowned in a retention pond.
bbruner@dispatch.com
@bethany_bruner
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: 4-year-old girl found dead in Northeast Side apartment retention pond
