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US: Memorial service held for 18-month-old toddler who fell from cruise ship

By Johanna Li From Inside Edition

18-month-old Chloe Wiegand tragically aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship earlier this month. (Wiegand family)

A memorial service was held Monday for little Chloe Wiegand, the toddler who tragically fell from a cruise ship earlier this month.

Loved ones flocked to the Granger, Indiana, service to remember the 18-month-old who plunged 11 stories to her death upon the Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas.

Among the friends and family who paid their respects were South Bend police officers, who worked alongside Chloe’s dad, a cop. Officers wore a carnation, and one held up a photo of the toddler.

The South Bend mayor and St. Joseph County prosecutor also attended the memorial.

The sad scene comes following Chloe’s tragic death while on vacation with her family. The cruise ship was docked at San Juan, Puerto Rico, when Chloe fell 150 feet from the 11th-floor pool deck onto the concrete dock below.

Puerto Rico authorities said Chloe’s grandfather Salvatore Anello was holding her outside of a window when she slipped out of his hands. But an attorney for the family challenged that claim, saying the family was in a play area on the ship circled by clear glass panels when the accident happened and that Anello lifted Chloe up to a railing he thought was behind glass but turned out to be open to the air. 

The Wiegands have since hired an attorney to figure out why a window was open in the children’s area of the ship.

No charges have been filed in connection with the toddler’s sudden death.

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