Locklyn and Loreli Callazzo: 18-month-old twins drown in family pool after great-grandmother with Alzheimer’s leaves back door open
OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA: Twin toddler siblings, a boy and a girl, aged just 18 months drowned in a pool at their family's mansion after their great-grandma with Alzheimer's apparently left a back door open in their Oklahoma City home. Locklyn and Loreli Callazzo were found unconscious at the bottom of the murky water by their mother Jenny Callazzo, 37, on Thursday, March 16.
Callazzo, a stay-at-home mother who runs a bow boutique, lives at the $565,000 home with her grandmother, six children, and husband Sonny, 42, a marketing executive. Upon the arrival of the Oklahoma City firefighters, she was seen administering CPR. A relative of the family told the Daily Mail that Callazzo’s grandmother, who has Alzheimer's, left the back door open. This allowed the twins to access the pool as they slipped out of the house. "Please pray for the twins' siblings and all of our family," they added in the statement.
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'Just want to play outside'
The toddlers were reportedly found in the pool of the Cobblestone neighborhood home at around 10:45 am and were pronounced dead two hours later. Aerial footage of the home showed a pool filled with dark green water due to thick algae. The cops have launched an investigation into the details but do not believe it to be criminal in nature. A few days before the tragic accident, Callazzo uploaded pictures of her twins outside the home with the caption “just want to play outside.”
A GoFundMe page has been created to help the family with expenses following the death of the toddlers. It has raised almost $6,000 of a $7,500 goal so far. "'These beautiful babies were taken from us too soon. Anything you can give to help with expenses would be greatly appreciated. We appreciate everyone's love and support," the posting read.
'Anything can happen in an instant'
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Laura Gamino, injury prevention coordinator for trauma at OU Health, said that she hopes parents realize how deadly water can be to young children. “Anything can happen in an instant,” she warned. “Children are attracted to water and toddlers won’t have the skills to be able to help themselves get out of water … Drowning is very sudden, and it’s very silent. Sometimes people have an idea that a child will have trouble in the water and be screaming, but they can’t because their mouth is full of water. So it’s very silent, and that’s one of the scariest things about it.” She went on to urge homeowners to build a four-foot-high fence around their pools with a gate that young children will not be able to open.