Mom was taking pictures of daughter when girl fell from Disney cruise

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Florida prosecutors decided not to charge the woman with child neglect after… her daughter fell into the ocean from a Disney cruise ship, despite a police investigation that found the woman put her child in a “life-threatening situation” by allowing her to pose for a photo in a porthole window.

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Authorities said the incident was “just an accident” and the 5-year-old girl survived thanks to her father, who jumped in after her after she fell 49 feet into the sea.

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The Daily Mail provided an update on the case on Sunday. Broward Sheriff's Office investigative reports and a prosecutor's memorandum include never-before-seen details about what led up to the fall and how the girl's parents responded.

According to a July 31 memo from the prosecutor in charge of Broward County's Child Death and Abuse Unit, the woman thought there was a barrier in the window that would prevent her daughter from falling. Melissa Kelly, an assistant state's attorney, declined to charge the mother with child neglect.

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While her conduct was “possibly negligent and irresponsible,” Kelly said in the memo, it “did not rise to the egregious level of conduct required to establish criminal negligence.”

Detectives turned the case over to prosecutors, writing in a report that while the incident was being treated as an accident, the child was not supervised aboard the Disney Dream. Sheriff's investigators learned last month that the woman would not be charged.

“Looking at the window, like a prudent person, I immediately saw that the window was open into the air and had no covering,” the sheriff’s office report states. “This act … placed the child in a life-threatening situation.”

The ordeal, which occurred on June 29 while the ship was sailing from the Bahamas to South Florida, gained widespread attention after passengers uploaded video of the dramatic rescue to social media. Rumors about the circumstances of the fall spread quickly.

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The child's father treaded water with her for 20 minutes, waiting for a rescue boat; He suffered two spinal fractures, hypothermia and lactic acid buildup, which can be caused by “excessive exercise,” according to the Cleveland Clinic. The prosecutor's note said his daughter suffered from mild hypothermia and mild lactic acidosis. Investigators did not release the names of the father and daughter or where they lived, although they said they were not residents of Florida.

The trio were exploring the walking trail on deck four when they came across a porthole-shaped window similar to others they had photographed. According to the sheriff's report, the mother “invited her daughter to take a photo in the window.” The girl climbed onto the 44-inch railing facing her mother, lost her balance and fell backwards.

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Live photos taken from the mother's phone show her climbing to the top and falling back, the investigator wrote. Surveillance video from the ship also showed the incident. The girl's father, who was about 10 feet away from his wife and daughter, briefly tried to run for help when he heard his wife scream, but less than a minute later he dived into the ocean after his daughter.

“He noted that he was having difficulty locating his daughter in the water and admitted that he temporarily lost visual contact,” the sheriff's office report states. The report says they called each other until he found her. “He was eventually able to reach her and walked with her through the water until they were rescued. He expressed surprise and relief at their survival.”

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The father's jump triggered the man overboard alarm at 11:30. When the child fell, it did not work, the prosecutor wrote. Crew members threw life preservers and within two minutes the ship began to turn around. By 11:40 a small rescue boat was launched. It reached the duet exactly 20 minutes after the girl fell.

In a conversation with investigators, the girl's mother said that during the cruise she took photographs in other parts of the ship in portholes protected by windows. She “stated that she believed the windows should be covered and noted that Disney was responsible for what happened.”

Disney previously praised the ship's crew for their “exceptional skill and quick action” in getting both passengers back on board quickly.

“We are committed to the safety and well-being of our guests, and this incident highlights the effectiveness of our safety protocols,” it said in a statement this summer.

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