JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Action News is digging deeper in the death of a 5-year-old girl.
She drowned Sunday night in a Westside retention pond that's completely open to a community full of kids. Wooden poles surround the pond; what's missing is the connecting fence to keep children and others from entering that pond.
"There was a bunch of children out there swimming and they shouldn't be," sad neighbor Donald Williams.
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The reason, neighbors say, is because it isn't safe. It's a downhill slope from the back of this family's home and a quick drop right into what appears to be shallow water. We're told the bottom drops out into deeper water very suddenly. Five-year-old Dana Windham, four other children and two teenagers were all playing in a relative's backyard when she somehow ended up in the pond.
"It's very sad. I was floored," said neighbor Luciana Robertson.
Neighbors hate that a tragedy had to happen and want that old fencing to be put back up.
"They go four-wheeling back there and the four-wheelers tore the fence down and they tear all the fence down," said Williams.
Action News made some calls to find out who's responsible for fixing the fence and learned that a company named Drees Homes owns the property but, according to the neighborhood homeowners association, has not been maintaining it.
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