Inset: Reynard Tyrone Hough (Osceola County Jail). Background: The Kissimmee, Florida, neighborhood where his daughter allegedly drowned (Google Maps).
A man from Washington, D.C., faces charges in Florida after his toddler daughter tragically drowned while they were on vacation. The incident occurred in a hot tub at an Airbnb property, according to law enforcement officials.
Officers from the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office arrived at a residence on Nice Court in Kissimmee shortly after 3:30 a.m. on Saturday. They were responding to a distress call about a child who appeared to have drowned. The 20-month-old was swiftly taken to a hospital by paramedics but sadly passed away approximately an hour later.
A probable cause affidavit reveals that detectives questioned the child’s father, 33-year-old Reynard Tyrone Hough. During the interview, Hough confessed to having consumed alcohol and “two different types of unknown narcotics” that night. Between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m., Hough recounted entering the master bedroom where he found the child’s mother and an infant asleep.
Hough noticed his toddler was awake and wanted to join him, so he took her outside to the backyard hot tub. He claimed he was holding the child when he fell asleep for about 20 minutes. He awoke when he felt the girl’s head drop, realizing immediately that something was wrong because she felt limp, the affidavit reported.
He hurried indoors to alert the child’s mother, failing to mention that they had been in the hot tub and that she might have drowned. The mother called emergency services, who arrived to find the child unresponsive and foaming at the mouth, as detailed in the complaint.
The affidavit noted that “Hough was unable to provide any reasonable explanation as to why he took his 1-year-old child, who could not swim, into a hot tub outside the residence with a depth of approximately 37 inches, at approximately 3 a.m., when the weather was around 55 degrees Fahrenheit, while he was still under the influence of alcohol.”
Hough had been vacationing at the Airbnb home with his family.
He’s facing charges of aggravated manslaughter of a child and child neglect with great bodily harm.
The suspect is at the Osceola County Jail without bond.
