5-Year-Old Drowns In Swimming Pool

A 5-year-old boy drowned after falling into a swimming pool in Catawba County.

The boy, Niyear Heath, was visiting his cousin, who is also 5 years old, on Wednesday evening. The two were playing outside of the home on Maidenwood Circle, south of Maiden, and wandered over to the next-door neighbor’s pool, family members said.

Adults in the family said they were outside with the boys and then stepped in for a few minutes. They heard screams, they said, and rushed out to check on the boys. They then realized the 5-year-olds had wandered to Mitzi Kaylor’s yard, which is about 40 yards away.

Niyear’s uncle rushed to the pool and pulled him out. He performed CPR, but it was too late.

“Watch your kids at all times,” Bertha Gwin, Niyear’s aunt, said. “Never take your eyes off of them. 'Cause it can happen in a split second.”

Kaylor, who does not have young children, said she thinks the boys climbed onto the deck of her above-ground pool and put their feet in the water. She said she thinks the boy then fell into the pool, which is 4 feet deep.

“I don't have small children so I never assumed that they would come over here,” she said. “I've never seen them in the back yard before.”

In 2006, North Carolina implemented a law that requires fences and barriers around pools. However, the law doesn’t require pools built before 2006 to add fences or barriers. According to county records, Kaylor’s pool was installed in 1996, allowing it to be grandfathered.

Still, Kaylor said she plans to have gates to the pool deck installed immediately.

Niyear's grandmother, Carole Mayfield, said she thinks a fence would have made a difference.

“I think one should have been there,” she said. “This wouldn't have happened if it was there.”