New Jersey prosecutors on Thursday announced the arrest of a mother and father accused of letting their two-year-old daughter drown in a neighborhood pool last summer.
Robert S. Trella, 41, and Brigitte M. McCarthy, of Berkeley Township, were charged with endangering the welfare of a child, tampering with evidence and possession of a controlled substance. They were held on $200,000 bail at their arraignments.
Berkeley Township police found the two-year-old child unresponsive in a neighborhood pool after receiving a 911 call about a nine-year-old wondering the neighborhood, looking for her sister.
Police determined Trella and McCarthy were the parents of the two children, and would leave the two-year-old in the care of the nine-year-old. Neighbors had also seen the two-year-old wandering the neighborhood unsupervised in the past, police said.
When their house was searched after the two-year-old was found dead, police allegedly discovered marijuana and heroin.
Attorney information from the couple was not immediately available.
