HOUSTON – A memorial garden was dedicated Monday morning to honor and remember 8-year-old Aliyah Jaico, the girl who drowned after getting stuck in a pool pipe at a Houston hotel.
A mural garden was presented at Mabel B. Wesley Elementary School, where Aliyah went to school for several years prior to her passing.
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The school has dedicated the garden to her memory and to her family.
According to Aliyah’s mother, kids painted blocks with her name, pictures, and messages on them. All the kids sang a song for her and some of the kids that knew her well said nice words about her at the memorial.
They named the garden and a bench after her.
“The loss of one of the students affected the community greatly,” the family’s attorney Richard Nava said at the event. “This whole incident, it made news across the world,” Nava said. He said the family wanted to portray a sense of community and a sense of people coming together with the garden.
What happened
Eight-year-old Aliyah’s body was found after first responders drained the pool on March 23 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Houston Brookhollow, located at Northwest Freeway and Pinemont Drive. Now investigators are working to figure out how something like this could happen and who is responsible.
Jaico was swimming with other family members in a lazy river-style pool at the hotel when she somehow got stuck inside a large pipe that feeds into the pool. She was reported missing around 5:45 p.m. and her body was recovered around 6:30 a.m. March 24.
Family’s attorney outlines wrongful death suit
Aliyah’s family attorney, Richard Nava filed a wrongful death lawsuit on the family’s behalf.
The wrongful death lawsuit names Unique Crown Hospitality LLC D/B/A DoubleTree by Hilton Houston Brookhollow and Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. as defendants.
Nava said Aliyah’s mother was nearby the entire time her daughter was swimming with other children in the family, including her 5-year-old sister. He said the mother turned her back for a split second and Aliyah disappeared in the water.
They believe Aliyah was possibly trying to help her younger sister in the pool when she was sucked into the pipe but are still investigating details.
Nava said this tragic incident could have been avoided, accusing the hotel of running an establishment with many violations.
Along with the lawsuit, he said they will also file a temporary restraining order to get full access to investigate the facility.
Nava said Miller would also help provide valuable information as he was at the scene during the search and when her body was discovered.
A Hilton spokesperson wrote the following in an email to KPRC 2:
“Hilton offers our sincere condolences to the family and loved ones in the tragic loss of a young girl at the DoubleTree by Hilton Houston Brookhollow. This property is independently owned and operated by a third party. Hilton does not own, manage, or control the day-to-day operations of the property and does not employ any of the property’s staff or its third-party operators.”
Tim Miller describes horrific moments of finding Aliyah’s body
Nava said when the search team found the child, her body was contorted inside the pipe, near the motor, and described how police and firefighters had to break concrete to get to her body.
Miller came to the hotel after receiving a call from the Houston Police Department about a missing child the Houston Fire Department could not find at the hotel. He said he had searchers outside and inside the hotel when they could not find her and thought she was somewhere else.
The hotel management did not give the family access to review surveillance video at the time of her disappearance but once the search team and Miller reviewed the tapes, surveillance showed Aliyah go underwater and never showed her getting out of the pool.
Miller said they had a pole with a camera on it and placed it 20 feet inside the pool’s pipe, where they saw Aliyah’s body wedged tightly inside.
“It was something that was just almost unbelievable when we put that pole up there with that camera and it was just ... (pause) ... it was almost unbelievable. We could not believe that -- even at her size was the size of that pipe that this could have happened,” Miller said.
He said there was no way Aliyah would have been able to swim into the pipe, explaining that her body was so far into the pipe that it was near the motor, which shut down suction of the pump. He said he started shutting off the pool’s pumps and his team went into recovery efforts.
“How her body was wedged in there, actually shut that pump, shut that suction off and there wasn’t really any suction at that time. And again, as tight as her little body was wedged in there it shut the suction off,” Miller said. “Her little body was all the way to the pump, so it took it in there a good distance.”
He said it was a long and tedious process extracting the body out of the pipe and described how fire officials had to break up concrete just to access the pipe. Aliyah’s body was finally recovered at 7 a.m. Sunday.
Miller said “It was a true challenge to say the least” and how grown men would not have been able to extract her body alone.
He also reiterated that Aliyah’s mother did nothing wrong and was close by, watching her daughter play with other children.
Malfunction with pool pipes
Miller said he attempted to contact the pool company the hotel used but has not heard back. He says he suspects that there was a malfunction with how the pipes operated.
He said there was another pipe next to the pipe Aliyah was pulled into with a grate on it, speculating that there was work done on the pump to change that pump and possibly it was wired wrong. The pump was reportedly supposed to pump water out but something went wrong. Miller said he’s waiting on the investigation for confirmed details.
Miller said during the incident, they did not receive a lot of help from the hotel or pool company, stating that they should have showed the video to family earlier.
Houston hotel owner says Aliyah Jaico’s mom’s ‘negligent actions’ played role in her drowning
In response to the wrongful death lawsuit involving Aliyah, Unique Crowne Hospitality, the local owner of DoubleTree by Hilton, has filed a response alleging the mother’s responsibility for the tragedy.
Filed on April 22, UCH explicitly denies the claims made against them and emphasizes the need for “stringent evidence to support the accusations.” They also claim that the mother’s alleged “negligent actions” or oversights played a role in the incident.
“UCH asserts that Plaintiffs engaged in negligent acts and/or omissions that proximately caused the alleged injuries and damages,” the court document reads. “UCH seeks a reduction of any damages that may be awarded against it by the percentage of responsibility found by the jury as to Plaintiffs, settling parties, responsible third parties, and/or anyone else.”