WBHF has received information about the drowning of a 23-month-old child at a residence on Euharlee Five Forks Road just east of Taylorsville Macedonia Road on May 25th. The child was transported to Egleston Hospital in Atlanta, where she died four days later. Her organs were harvested for donation.
An adult at the scene walked out on the back deck of the house and found the child floating face down in a swimming pool without her vest on, immediately jumped in, and pulled her out. Investigators later found the child’s life vest buckled and sitting upright next to the pool steps.
A second adult began giving the child CPR while the father, Ronald Talley, became irate and fled the scene due to a felony violation of parole warrant from over two months before. He was eventually booked into the Bartow County Jail on May 27th. That second adult believed that the child was only out of sight for about ten minutes before she was found.
When deputies and first responders arrived, eight adults and one juvenile were at the residence. One of them was the child’s great grandmother, who had legal custody of the child. Another present was the child’s great grandfather Ronald Freeman, who was arrested for disorderly conduct and misdemeanor obstructing or hindering a law enforcement officer. Freeman was allegedly intoxicated, belligerent, and tried to fight with an officer for not letting him leave the house.
The Bartow County Sheriff’s Office has stated that this case is not active. At the time of the report in May, District Attorney Rosemary Greene stated it did not appear that anyone could be prosecuted for the negligent death of the child. There were several adults on scene when the child drowned and it would be difficult to select one person to blame for the death.
However, Greene told WBHF on Tuesday that this case has not been reviewed yet by the Bartow County child fatality review committee and is still pending.