Boy, 3, Drowned in North Lauderdale Backyard Pool While Relatives Napped: BSO

Metzden Cenord of Margate was pronounced dead at Coral Springs Medical Center

A 3-year-old boy drowned in a backyard swimming pool while his relatives napped, the Broward Sheriff’s Office said.

Metzden Cenord had been napping with his mother, Woodnide Cenord, and grandmother, Marie Enith Mesidor, when he asked to go to another bedroom to see his uncle. His mother gave him permission, but in the other room the uncle was also asleep, and the child went out an open sliding glass door and a screen door and wandered into the murky, unmaintained pool, BSO spokeswoman Dani Moschella said.

Authorities were called to the grandmother's home at 6704 Rio Pinar in North Lauderdale at 1:53 p.m. Saturday.

"Each one thought he was with another adult. When the uncle went outside, (he) saw the little boy’s sandals in the swimming pool, and jumped in,” Moschella said.

The uncle began CPR, and paramedics continued treating the boy, who was from Margate. But he was pronounced dead at Coral Springs Medical Center at 2:28 p.m., the BSO said.

Family members were in shock and distraught outside the home Saturday, as their screams pierced through the neighborhood. “Where’s my son?” Woodnide Cenord cried out.

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Family friend Carlo Narcisse said he thought the child’s parents were responsible. But he also said he can empathize, as he almost lost his son in a drowning.

"I jumped in and I got him out. I saved him. I was lucky," Narcisse said.

BSO detectives are investigating the drowning.

“This family is devastated. It’s just a very sad situation with a little 3-year-old boy wandering into a backyard swimming pool,” Moschella said.

Metzden’s mother is 6 months pregnant, according to the BSO.

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