In the warm hush of a late summer afternoon, where sunlight glints off still waters and laughter is meant to mingle with the breeze, an ordinary family gathering in Pilar turned into an unfathomable sorrow. Pools are often places of cool respite, where conversations ripple like gentle waves and feet splash in innocent play. On Tuesday evening, however, that pool — under a sky that still held the day’s last glow — became the silent stage of a tragedy that now weighs on the hearts of many.
The boy, just six years old, moved among relatives in the broad yard of a casaquinta in the La Pilarica area, where family visits are meant to be filled with conviviality and ease. Yet in a moment that can only be described as cruel and swift, he slipped from sight and vanished into the water. Pools have a way of merging reflection with depth, and in this case, the depths proved fatal.
Family members initially believed the child to be with his older sister — another young soul — until the sister returned alone, and alarm spread through the group like a sudden gust of wind. Searching the property, his mother’s frantic footsteps led her to the pool’s edge, where the sight that met her shattered all quiet hopes of that afternoon’s joy.
Witnesses say the pool’s water, calm and unassuming, held a depth near 1.80 meters, a number that belies the danger it posed to a small child. His body lay at the bottom, and though emergency services — including an ambulance from SAME — arrived quickly and performed resuscitation efforts, the life he carried was no longer visible in the rising sun.
The boy’s diagnosis of Trastorno del Espectro Autista (TEA) casts additional layers of reflection on the tragedy, as many who knew the family speak now not only of loss but of the deep empathy that must surround children with special needs. In the quiet that followed the news, neighbors and friends tried to gather their thoughts around questions that seemed too heavy for any single afternoon.
In the aftermath, police officers moved methodically around the scene, preserving the area and collecting early testimonies as the Judicial authorities initiated a formal investigation. The case has been classified as “averiguación de causales de muerte”, opening inquiries into whether adult supervision, safety measures around the pool, or other factors played a role in the unfurling of events that led to such irreparable loss.
Witnesses at the property have offered varying accounts, and some details — including aspects of adult behavior that afternoon — are now part of what investigators must examine more closely. In the quiet homes nearby, discussions have shifted toward how even moments meant to be carefree can hide risks beneath their surface, stirring conversations about vigilance and care in places where water and children meet.
As Pilar absorbs the shock of this small life ended too soon, neighbors set out flowers, and community members ponder how safety and remembrance might walk together — a tender contemplation born from tragedy’s sudden arrival in a place usually marked by simplicity and calm.
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Sources
El Litoral
El Doce
TN (Todo Noticias)
Que Pasa Salta
Pilar Diario