FLORENCE, Ky. — On Saturday, police were dispatched to a home in Florence for reports of a missing 11-year-old boy with autism.
The Boone County Sheriff's Office said minutes later, the boy was found submerged in a neighbor's swimming pool. He was transported to St. Elizabeth, where he was pronounced dead.
Madou Ba, 11, was seen by family only 20 minutes before they called 911 to declare him missing, according to police. Police said after calling 911, the family began to search for him, including checking with neighbors to see if anyone had spotted him.
"When deputies arrived on scene, it was learned that Madou's family went to a neighbor's residence, which had a pool enclosed by a fence in their backyard and requested that the neighbor check their backyard and around the pool in hopes of locating him," a press release from the Boone County Sheriff's Office reads.
When the neighbor checked the back yard, Madou was submerged in the pool. Police said the neighbor immediately jumped in, pulled Madou from the pool and began CPR.
According to police, this is a tragic accident; Madou was "drawn to water" and had taken his shirt off before climbing a shared fence into the neighbor's yard and climbing into the pool.
