Tragedy in pool
3-year-old twin boys drown at L.I. home
TWIN BOYS just 3 years old died Wednesday after apparently drowning in their family’s Long Island pool, Suffolk County police said.
Nicholas and Anthony Aurilia were found in the untreated, green pool on Holly Court in Melville at about 8:30 a.m. One boy was floating in the pool, the other was pulled from its depths.
Medics from the Melville Volunteer Fire Department rushed the twins to Plainview Hospital in critical condition. They died there a short time later.
“The hospital worked feverishly for a different outcome, but it was not to be today,” said Andrea Mineo, a spokeswoman for Plainview Hospital.
Detectives said it appeared the brothers’ deaths were accidental.
When firefighters arrived, they found the twins’ mother, Sue Aurilia, performing CPR on Nicholas on the ground next to the pool. The child was not breathing, police said.
The panicked mom told first responders that she found her boy floating in the pool and her second child Anthony was missing.
Anthony was found moments later in the murky pool. Four firefighters jumped in to pull the child out, Assistant Chief David Kaplan of the Melville Fire Department told Newsday.
The mother told police that her boys were in bed when she checked on them earlier in the morning, according to law enforcement sources.
When she returned a short time later, they were gone. She found them in the pool when she frantically searched the house.
The twins’ parents left their home with some belongings Wednesday evening, but they didn’t speak to reporters.
Neighbors said Nicholas and Anthony’s family moved to Melville from Flushing, Queens, about a month ago.
Neighbor Anu Lamba, 65, stopped by the quiet home Wednesday afternoon to offer her support.
“I can’t take their pain away,” said Lamba, who has twin grandsons. “I can’t help them. I can’t save them.
“This is a horrible accident,” she added, sobbing. “It’s going to change the rest of their lives. I can’t imagine what they’re going through.”