TWO FORMER EMPLOYEES of the state of Massachusetts are to be charged in connection with the death of a woman who lay dead – unnoticed – in a public swimming pool for two days.
Prosecutors have charged two men – the former regional director and district manager of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation – in connection with the death of Marie Joseph, 36.
Joseph died on June 26 after going down a water slide into the deep end of a swimming pool in Fall River, Massachusetts. She is thought to have collided with someone at the exit of the slide, and to have sank to the foot of the 12-foot pool.
She had been in the pool with her 9-year-old neighbour, who reported that she had gone missing to the lifeguards on duty, but they did not investigate.
Town inspectors visited the pool in the two days after the drowning, Fox News reports, but the woman’s body was still not found.
A report later issued by district attorneys showed there were no lifeguards at fault, while prosecutors said they could not prove that they had indeed been informed
A report filed by the inspectors on that day noted that the pool appeared to be “cloudy”, but they nonetheless allowed the pool to remain open.
Joseph’s body was discovered that night, the Boston Herald added – by two teenagers who had snuck into the pool after its usual opening hours, and who saw her remains having risen to the surface after two days underwater.
The two men charged in connection with the incident – each of whom resigned after it came to light – have been charged with the reckless endangerment of a child, apparently by allowing Joseph’s neighbour to remain unaccompanied in the pool.
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