Published: June 02, 2008 03:13 pm      

Drowning death ruled an accident

AVON — A community is in mourning following the accidental drowning of a 5-year-old girl in a private pool here.

Hendricks County Sheriff’s Lt. Jim Yetter said deputies were dispatched around 2 p.m. Saturday to 8460 Ferguson Circle to assist Avon firefighters on a report of an unresponsive child.

Yetter said the child — later identified as Sheyenne Jenkins — had been pulled out of a swimming pool. He explained that a neighbor and the girl’s grandfather, Melvin Jenkins, performed CPR until firefighters arrived.

Sheyenne was taken to Clarian West Hospital in Avon, where she was later pronounced dead,

Yetter said investigators learned that Sheyenne and her 8-year-old brother had spent the day playing at their grandparent’s home. When their grandmother, Janice Jenkins, went to check on them, Yetter said she was unable to find them. She searched the neighborhood and found them at a vacant home two houses down. Sheyenne was in the swimming pool in the backyard at that time.

Yetter said the house had been vacant for the past four months and the pool had been covered.

“The cover had sagged all the way down to the bottom of the pool,” he added. “It was full, about five feet of water. It had weeks’ worth, maybe even months’ worth, of water in it.”

He said that there was a partial fence around the yard, but it did not restrict access to the pool.

Yetter said investigators found a basketball floating in the pool and are speculating that Sheyenne might have been reaching for the ball when she went into the pool.

After speaking with neighbors, Yetter said investigators learned that the pool had been in this condition for a while.

Hendricks County Coroner Jason Matthews ruled Sheyenne’s death as a drowning.

“Tragedy at its greatest proportions, that is for sure,” Matthews said.

amanda.roach@flyergroup.com