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2 missing toddlers found dead in neighbor’s pool

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) – Two toddlers drowned in their next-door neighbor’s swimming pool after apparently wandering out of their home Monday. No foul play was suspected, police said.

The 2-year-old girl and 3-year-old boy were being watched by their great-grandmother when they left the house sometime Monday morning.

Family members searched for the children for an hour before calling police, Fresno Police Lt. Joe Gomez said.

The children were last seen in a room with access to a garage that had its door open.

Investigators believe the toddlers left their home through the garage and walked to the neighbor’s house.

They entered the neighbor’s yard through an open gate and climbed or squeezed through a 4-foot high wrought iron fence surrounding the pool, Gomez said.

“There were some bikes next to the fence they could have used to climb over it,” he said. “It appears to be an extremely unfortunate tragic accident.”

Their next door neighbor, Elizabeth Valle, found the kids in her pool after a police officer asked her for permission to search her backyard.

Valle told the Fresno Bee that she screamed and jumped into the pool, as did one of the officers. The boy was floating in the water, and the girl was found at the bottom.

Officers and paramedics tried to revive the children, Valle said. They were pronounced dead at a hospital.

Valle told the newspaper she found the same children unattended in her backyard about six months ago and walked them home.