Overview

• The newly public police report says the mother asked her 5-year-old to pose at an open porthole on the Disney Dream moments before the child fell into the ocean on June 29.
• Both parents gave matching accounts consistent with security footage, and the sheriff earlier refuted online rumors that the father put the child on the railing.
• Detective Christopher Favitta recommended a child-neglect charge, but the Broward County State Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute on Sept. 16.
• The father jumped in about 45 seconds after the fall and kept his daughter afloat until a ship rescue boat recovered them; the girl had no reported injuries.
• Investigators noted the porthole was open to the air and its shelf-and-railing design is easy for a small child to climb, and the man-overboard alarm was triggered by the father’s jump, not the child.