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Inset: Reynard Tyrone Hough (Osceola County Jail). Background: The Kissimmee, Florida, neighborhood where his daughter allegedly drowned (Google Maps).
A man from Washington, D.C. has been detained in Florida following a tragic incident where his young daughter drowned in a hot tub while they were staying at an Airbnb during a vacation, according to police reports.
The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office received a call shortly after 3:30 a.m. on Saturday regarding an unresponsive child at a residence on Nice Court in Kissimmee. Emergency medical services transported the 20-month-old girl to a nearby hospital, but she sadly passed away around an hour later.
As detailed in a probable cause arrest affidavit, investigators spoke with the father, 33-year-old Reynard Tyrone Hough. He confessed to having consumed alcohol and two types of unspecified narcotics that night. In a post-Miranda statement, he recounted that between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m., he entered the master bedroom and saw the girl’s mother and an infant sleeping.
Hough explained that he noticed his toddler was awake and wanted to be with him, so he took her to the backyard hot tub. He stated that while holding his daughter, he accidentally fell asleep for approximately 20 minutes. Upon awakening, he felt the girl’s “head drop” and realized something was wrong because she felt limp, as noted by authorities.
He then rushed inside to inform the girl’s mother but did not disclose that they had been in the hot tub or that she might have drowned, according to the affidavit. The mother contacted emergency services, and when they arrived, they found the child “foaming at the mouth” and unresponsive, the complaint alleged.
“Hough was unable to provide any reasonable explanation as to why he took his 1-year-old child, who could not swim, into a hot tub outside the residence with a depth of approximately 37 inches, at approximately 0300 hours, when the weather was approximately 55 degrees Fahrenheit, while he was feeling like he was coming off the effects of alcohol,” cops wrote.
Hough had been vacationing at the Airbnb home with his family.
He’s facing charges of aggravated manslaughter of a child and child neglect with great bodily harm.
The suspect is at the Osceola County Jail without bond.