Related Articles
This is the harrowing moment a grandfather slumps to the ground after dropping a toddler to her death from a cruise ship window.
The video was obtained by Puerto Rican TV show La Comay.
Salvatore Anello was charged with negligent homicide in the death of his granddaughter Chloe Wiegand, 18 months, who fell 150ft to a concrete dock from a Royal Caribbean ship on July 7 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Anello, an IT worker from Valparaiso, Indiana, faces three years in prison if the case goes to trial and he’s found guilty.
On Tuesday, Puerto Rican prosecutors offered him a plea deal, which he would have to admit guilt by negligence to receive no jail time, minimum probation and minimum supervision.
But Anello has maintained he didn’t realize the window Chloe ‘slipped’ through was open, blaming his colorblindness.
His attorney said he was not considering the plea deal, maintaining that he is entirely innocent.
Now, video footage from the tragic day shows Anello’s shock and horror as he watches his little granddaughter plummet to her death after lifting her up to a railing so she could see out the window.
One video, showing the tragedy unfold from a side view, shows the bustling Freedom of the Seas ship, with Chloe running to the window wearing a cute pink swimming costume and a white floppy hat
Anello follows behind her and also looks out the window. He bends down seemingly talking to Chloe before lifting her up so she can look out the window with him
Video footage shows the moment Salvatore Anello dropped Chloe Wiegand, 18 months, from a Royal Caribbean ship on July 7 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He slumps to the ground in shock and horror as he watches Chloe fall to her death after lifting her up to see out a window
Anello was charged with negligent homicide in the death of his granddaughter Chloe. Anello, an IT worker from Valparaiso, Indiana, faces three years in prison if the case goes to trial and he’s found guilty
On Tuesday, Puerto Rican prosecutors offered him a plea deal, which he would have to admit guilt by negligence to receive no jail time, minimum probation and minimum supervision. Pictured: The final photo of Chloe taken just a few feet away from the spot where the angelic toddler fell to her death
One video, showing the tragedy unfold from a side view, shows the bustling Freedom of the Seas ship, with Chloe running to the window wearing a cute pink swimming costume and a white floppy hat.
Anello follows behind her and also looks out the window. He bends down, appearing to talk to Chloe before lifting her up so she can look out the window with him.
Several seconds later, Anello seems to lean forward and then falls backwards to the ground, with Chloe no longer in his arms.
Another video, from behind, shows the grandfather and granddaughter walking over to the window. Anello is seen holding Chloe up to the window.
The little girl appears to be lifting both of her hands to place them on the glass, but then suddenly vanishes as she falls to her death.
Anello didn’t say anything at his court appearance on Tuesday. He appeared somber as he walked inside the court room wearing a gray suit, brown tie and white dress shirt.
Anello previously claimed he was colorblind and didn’t realize the ship’s tinted window pane was open when he lifted 18-month-old Chloe up to the railing and she ‘slipped’ from his arms and fell to her death.
In Tuesday’s hearing, his lawyers said they plan to present Anello’s medical records and evidence on his health status, and also indicated they would want a trial by jury.
His legal team will try to prove his color blindness meant he couldn’t see that there wasn’t any glass in the window pane the little girl fell through.
The next court hearing is set for January 27, 2020.
Last month, Anello told CBS This Morning: ‘I am color blind so that’s something that … I don’t know. I just never saw it. I’ve been told that’s a reason it may have happened.’
He also said there was nothing Puerto Rican prosecutors could do to him that would be more painful than his grief, saying: ‘Chloe being gone is the worst thing ever so I’m like whatever.
‘You know. I don’t know… there’s nothing worse that they could do to me than what’s already happened…. Whether they find me guilty or not it’s inconsequential.’
Last month, DailyMail.com revealed the last photo taken of Chloe moments before she tumbled through the sliding glass windows surrounding the Freedom of the Seas ship’s H2O Zone and died instantly as she landed on a concrete dock.
The bitter-sweet image shows Chloe standing beside a kids’ splash pool on the 11th deck of the ship.
Wearing a white floppy sunhat, cute pink swimming costume and matching pink water shoes, she looks inquisitively at the colorful sculptures and spray cannons.
Footage of the tragedy seen by DailyMail.com shows the moment Chloe fell, with Anello slumping to his knees and her mother recoiling in shock as she collapsed to the ground.
Another image of the tragic scene shows the spot where Chloe is presumed to have landed and soon after been pronounced dead, covered with a blue police tent.
The photo is included in a negligence suit filed this month by Chloe’s parents Alan and Kimberly Wiegand, accusing Royal Caribbean of breaching industry safety standards by having large glass windows on their ships that could be slid wide open by passengers without warning.
Anello didn’t say anything at his court appearance on Tuesday. He appeared somber as he walked inside the court room wearing a gray suit, brown tie and white dress shirt
Harrowing crime scene photos taken moments after Indiana toddler Chloe fell to her death from the 11th deck of a cruise ship can be revealed for the first time. A photograph depicting the distance between the window the toddler fell through and the railing
The images obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com include a picture of the exact window angelic Chloe tumbled through before plunging 150ft on to a concrete dock in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The wall of glass featured three rows of glass, floor to ceiling, with a wooden rail between the middle and bottom rows. Here it is closed off with police tape
An interior view of the windows where Chloe fell shows their slight tint
The Wiegands have been steadfast in their support for Anello, Chloe’s maternal grandfather, blaming Royal Caribbean for failing to install the safety devices or warning signs seen on similar ships.
If their suit succeeds, the grieving couple from South Bend, Indiana could claim ‘unlimited’ damages for pain and mental suffering because Chloe died on American territory rather than while the boat was at sea.
Damages awarded under unlawful death laws are typically far higher than those under the Death On The High Seas Act, which covers only smaller items such as funeral expenses, the family’s attorney Michael Winkleman explained.
He refused to be drawn on a specific figure telling DailyMail.com: ‘One of the hardest things in my job is to put a figure on grief. And how can you possibly do that in the death of a child.
‘Four simple words – caution these windows open – and we wouldn’t be talking about his. A sticker, a decal with the Royal Caribbean logo, anything, and Chloe is still with us.’
The Wiegands’ suit, filed in Miami, Florida, where Royal Caribbean is based, states that Anello was alone with Chloe and ‘closely supervising her’ at an area known as the H2O Zone.
Anello wailed and had to be comforted as he filmed an interview for CBS This Morning about his granddaughter Chloe’s death. He said: ‘I am color blind so that’s something that … I don’t know. I just never saw it. I’ve been told that’s a reason it may have happened. Chloe being gone is the worst thing ever so I’m like whatever’
The window on the far left is the one Chloe fell through on Sunday while being held against the railing by her grandfather. The others appear to have handles which allow them to be slid open This photograph was taken by Chloe’s father after the accident
It states that Chloe and Anello walked towards the ‘wall of glass’ that surrounds the ship’s 11th deck unaware that the center section comprises panes that can be slid open by ‘anyone’.
The filing says Anello lifted Chloe up so she could bang on the glass as she loved to do at her older brother’s ice hockey games, unaware they were leaning towards thin air.
She slipped from his grasp and tumbled to her death through the only open pane ‘among dozens,’ it alleges.
The suit contends there was not a single warning sign, decal or safety notice to alert parents to the ‘hidden dangers’ that it argues are required by industry standards.
One of the images depicts the wooden handrail, 18 inches in front of the ship’s bank of window, which Anello sat Chloe on in the seconds before she fell.
Far from making things safer, the filing says this created a gap between Anello and the window and made it harder for the devastated grandparent – who is color blind – to distinguish between glass and a missing pane.
Similar cruise ships including newer boats owned by Royal Caribbean employ devices such as window screens or guards that are not present on the 2004-built Freedom of the Seas, the filing further alleges.
