Family visit to friends turns tragic; girl drowns

A 3-year-old Naples girl drowned after falling into a pool at a Golden Gate Estates home.

Ivy Rose Scholtz and her parents, John and Mary Scholtz, were visiting friends Friday at a home at 3691 Sixth Ave. N.E.

About 10:10 p.m., Ivy’s parents heard screaming coming from the pool area, the Collier County Sheriff’s Office reported. As they ran toward the pool, they saw a 13-year-old boy pulling Ivy Rose from the water.

Mary Scholtz, who said she used to be a paramedic, attempted to administer CPR to her daughter.

An off-duty firefighter who was at the gathering and two Collier County sheriff’s deputies assisted with the CPR until EMS arrived and took over, the Sheriff’s Office reported.

Ivy Rose was taken to North Collier Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 11:26 p.m. Friday.

Mary Scholtz told investigators she had seen her daughter about 10 minutes earlier, but it was not known how long Ivy Rose was in the pool. Ivy Rose had been playing with other children in a tent in the backyard.

“We were just playing peek-a-boo with her in a tent,” Mary Scholtz said Saturday. “She was a beautiful little girl. She was our only daughter. She was our baby. She drowned. It was a horrible accident.”

Mary Scholtz said a door to the pool was accidentally left propped open.

“She went around the side and we didn’t know it was open,” she said. “The pool was right there and she just fell in the pool.”

The 13-year-old boy had gone from inside the house, saw the girl in the pool and then pulled her out.

Investigators said the child’s death appears accidental.