The toddler who took a fatal fall from a Royal Caribbean cruise ship docked in Puerto Rico was identified Monday as the daughter of an Indiana police officer.
The South Bend Police Department said in a statement that the girl, Chloe Wiegand, was the daughter of Officer Alan Wiegand and asked “the community to pray for the Wiegand family as they grieve and to respect their privacy.”
Local authorities said Monday that the family — including the 1-year-old’s parents, her two siblings and both sets of grandparents — will stay in Puerto Rico until the investigation is complete.
Officers haven’t been able to interview any relatives yet as “they’re in shock,” said Police Sgt. Nelson Sotelo.
The girl was being held by her grandfather when she seemingly slipped out of his arms and plunged from the 11th floor of the Freedom of the Seas to the concrete on the Pan American dock II in San Juan.
Her maternal grandfather, Salvatore Anello of Valparaiso, Indiana, is under investigation, Sotelo said. Anello works in the IT department for St. Joseph County, local station WSBT reported.
Puerto Rico Ports Authority spokesman José Carmona said the grandfather had sat the girl at the edge of a window in or near the 11th-floor dining hall.
Officials are probing whether the window was already opened or if someone had opened it, Carmona said.
A Royal Caribbean spokeswoman said the ship departed Puerto Rico on Monday for St. Maarten on a new itinerary.
With Post wires