93-3-WMR Audio on Demand presents the Preston and Steve show podcast.

And now, Preston and Steve's news updates with Kathy Romano.

Monday, June 29th.

Good morning, Kathy.

Good morning.

In the news this morning, a mother and grandfather who drowned in their backyard pool in New Jersey a week ago were trying to rescue an eight-year-old girl who had fallen in, police said.

62-year-old Barrett Patel, his 33-year-old daughter-in-law, Nisha Patel, and her eight-year-old daughter were found unresponsive in the above-ground pool last Monday afternoon by East Brunswick police, responding to a 911 call from neighbors who heard screams. What a freaking nightmare. Right. A nightmare. And I think when everybody heard this story, they were like, wait a minute, how did this happen in an above ground pool? Yeah, I initially thought electrocution, but that's what they were saying. They did throw that out there, but that was not the case. So East Brunswick Lieutenant Frank Sutter said the young girl had fallen into the pool

and her grandfather and mother were trying to save her when they too began to drown.

NJ.com reported.

Authority said that while the above ground pool was mostly shallow, about three and a half feet deep,

a portion of the pool was seven feet deep and it doesn't appear that the victims knew how to swim. Wow, a seven foot above ground pool? Yeah. Actually, when years ago, in fact, the pool that I walked across the bottom of with the weight belt was an above ground pool, they got extra liner for the bottom and dug like a seven, seven and a half foot ditch. No kidding. And that's the pool I was in.

All right.

And from what I understand, Kathy, were they new to this house or something along the lines? I was talking to some people over the weekend who had heard that that might have been the case. So I'm like, why do you have a pool if you don't know how to swim? If you don't know. Right. Well, in the area, there's some aerial shots, like it looks like a lot of the neighborhood had pools.

So. like, why do you have a pool if you don't know how to swim? You don't know what I mean? Well, in the area, if you, there's some aerial shots, like, uh, it looks like a lot of the

neighborhood had pools.

So, you know, if they were new to the area, maybe, you know, it came with the house. Um, but yeah, I mean, yeah, that's, that's conjecture. I can't tell you for sure if that's the case or not, but that's what I thought I had heard.

The county's regional medical examiner determined the cause of death to be drowning and ruled the manner of death as accidental for all three victims.

The investigation is continuing and anyone with information is asked to contact police or prosecutors.

Indoor portions of shopping malls will be able to open on Monday with strict guidelines in New Jersey.

Governor Phil Murphy announced earlier this week.

But don't expect big crowds. Malls are an undeniable part of New Jersey's culture, and we want

these businesses to get back up and running in a safe, responsible manner, said Governor Murphy,

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