MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WMBF) – A woman is facing charges after a North Carolina teenage girl with autism drowned in a Myrtle Beach hotel pool last week.
Myrtle Beach police charged Brittany Neely, 32, with four counts of unlawful conduct toward a child.
The arrest came after 14-year-old Neveah Neely was pulled from the Sandbar Hotel pool on Thursday off South Ocean Boulevard in Myrtle Beach and died in the hospital about 8:15 p.m.
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Arrest warrants show that Neveah was nonverbal and had autism.
An arrest report stated that Brittany left Neveah, who couldn’t swim, and her sibling unattended in the pool area for an extended period.
The warrants show the other children were 10, 7 and 12, and Neely was allegedly inside a room on the second floor.
Neveah was submerged beneath the water for about 45 minutes before she was pulled, according to the arrest report.
Chief Deputy Coroner Tamara Willard said Neveah’s family was visiting from Salisbury, North Carolina.
The relationship between Brittany and Neveah is not stated in the documents.
Police arrested Brittany Thursday night. She was released from the J. Reuben Long Detention Center on a $100,000 bond Sunday, jail records show.
Some guests at the Sandbar Hotel said they learned about the drowning from social media, not from hotel staff.
A receptionist working the front desk declined to comment.
Chris Helms, an attorney at Inlet Law, said the unlawful-conduct-toward-a-child statute is broad; almost anything a person does that results in harm to a child can be charged under the statute.
Helms said that if convicted, each count could carry a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.
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