New Salisbury toddler drowns in home pool
A three-year-old New Salisbury youngster drowned Friday afternoon in his grandparents’ above- ground swimming pool.
Derek Joseph Hayden had been playing outside Friday, making several trips between his mother’s and his grandparents’ home, which are next to each other on Cedar Lane, said Det. Roy Wiseman of the Harrison County Sheriff’s Dept.
The child was last seen about 2:35 p.m. when he said he was going to ride his bike to his grandmother’s house.
Wiseman said Derek’s mother, Trish Hayden, called her parents’ home to see if Derek had made it. When they learned that he had not arrived, the family began searching for the boy.
Derek’s grandparents, Ronald Sr. and Patty McClure, had started work on a new deck around the pool, which is about four feet deep, to make it more difficult to gain access to it, Wiseman said.
Police speculate that Derek either climbed over a low fence surrounding the pool, which was full of water, or slid in between the slats.
Emergency responders began CPR as soon as they arrived at the scene, and the toddler was transported to Harrison County Hospital in Corydon, where he was pronounced dead.
“It was just one of those accidental things,” Wiseman said. “Pools are dangerous.”
Derek J. Hayden was born July 31, 1998. He and his family attended Old Capitol United Methodist Church in Corydon.
Survivors besides his mother and grandparents include his father, Sam Hayden of New Salisbury; a brother, Taylor L. Holland of New Salisbury; a sister, Jackie Hayden of New Salisbury; grandparents Richard and Charlotte Jewett of Hayes, La.; great-grandparents, Gracie Springer of New Salisbury, Kermit McClure of Jeffersonville, and Bessie Griffin and Charlie Knott, both of Delphi.
The funeral was Monday at Swarens Funeral Home in Ramsey with burial in Central Barren Cemetery. The Rev. Charles Wilfong officiated. The Rev. Richard Ryan was vocalist and Cathy Ryan was the organist.
Pallbearers were Kenny Trunnel, David Budd, Randy Beatty, Russell Terry, Robert Springer and Sam Hayden.
Old Capitol United Methodist Church is accepting financial contributions to aid the family, which did not have life insurance on the child.
