Deadly weekend in Triangle pools: 2 girls drown

Eighteen-month-old Ariana Montserrat Tejada drowned in a backyard pool at a home at 975 Lee Road in Clayton at about 9 p.m.

Relatives said they were at a friend's house celebrating a birthday. At some point, there was a mix-up as to who was watching the little girl, and by the time they figured out no one had been paying attention to her, she was gone, relatives said. They found her floating facedown in the pool, and frantic efforts to revive her – first responders from Johnston County and the Cleveland Fire Department performed CPR for more than an hour – weren't successful.

A few hours earlier in Raleigh, a 5-year-old girl drowned at an apartment complex swimming pool.

Raleigh police officers were dispatched at about 6:20 p.m. in response to a possible drowning at the Maystone at Wakefield complex pool, in the 11000 block of Beckstone Way.

Witnesses said the girl, whose name hasn't been released, was with a group of more than a dozen people visiting the pool Sunday afternoon. One person said the girl was pulled from the bottom of the pool, but it was unclear how long she was underwater.

Paramedics took the girl to WakeMed, where she was pronounced dead.

"It's unfortunate that, with all those adults, no one was watching the children," complex resident Jherrae Phillips said Monday. "Throughout the community it's been the same. The grief of losing a little kid, it's hard."

Signs were posted at the pool that no lifeguard was on duty.

Authorities said no criminal charges are expected in either case.