An on board doctor has described the horrifying moment he found Chloe Wiegand face down on a concrete pier after she slipped from her grandfather’s grasp and fell 150ft from a cruise ship window.
In a witness statement obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com, Dr. Marcel Alexander Armand Van Drunick also recalls how he quizzed grandfather Salvatore Anello minutes after the fatal plunge of the Indiana toddler on July 7 last year.
The elderly, color-blind grandfather was hysterical and unable to walk unaided – but he immediately gave Dr. Van Drunick the same explanation he has given investigators ever since: ‘I thought the window was closed.’
Dr. Van Drunick was on board the Freedom the Seas when he was radioed at 4:04pm to reports of an ‘accident on the gangway’.
The 57-year-old medic raced along the Pan-American pier in San Juan, Puerto Rico where the $800 million cruise ship was docked and soon spotted 18-month-old Chloe.
‘About halfway down the pier we saw the body of a baby lying on the pier. It was a female, 18 month baby lying face down with multiple traumatic injuries. There was no life,’ Dr. Van Drunick told Puerto Rican investigators.
‘Her one pink shoe and the white hat was lying on the pier not far from the deceased. I immediately shouted for a sheet to cover the body.’
Salvatore Anello is accused of dropping his granddaughter Chloe Wiegand (pictured together) to her death from an open cruise ship window in San Juan, Puerto Rico on July 7. Dr. Marcel Alexander Armand Van Drunick, the on board doctor for the ship, gave a witness statement describing the horrifying moment he found her body
Dr. Van Drunick told Puerto Rican investigators: ‘Her one pink shoe and the white hat was lying on the pier not far from the deceased. I immediately shouted for a sheet to cover the body.’ Pictured: The last photo of Chloe before she fell to her death
Video footage shows the moment Anello dropped Chloe, 18 months, from the cruise ship. 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
The doctor said he raced along the pier in San Juan, Puerto Rico where the $800 million cruise ship was docked and soon spotted Chloe. ‘About halfway down the pier we saw the body of a baby lying on the pier. It was a female, 18 month baby lying face down with multiple traumatic injuries. There was no life,’ Dr. Van Drunick told investigators. Pictured: Tent closing off the area where Chloe’s body lay
The harrowing account goes on to say that Dr. Van Drunick heard screams coming from the 11th deck of the ship.
He decided to head upstairs to investigate and was confronted by a scene of ‘chaos.’
‘The grandfather was being escorted (assisted on both sides, from other people) crying and sobbing,’ his statement goes on.
‘The grandfather collapsed on his hands and knees in the corner of the elevator. He was distraught sobbing, crying, saying: ‘I dropped my baby, I dropped my baby.’
‘I bent down and asked him what happened. While he was crying he just said: ‘I thought the window was closed’.’
Dr. Van Drunick said Chloe’s distraught parents Alan and Kimberly Wiegand, from South Bend, Indiana, arrived moments later
‘The parents were emotionally traumatized, asking to see their child,’ he told police. ‘The parents were kept separated from the ER/Grandfather.’
Medical staff gave Kimberly a sedative but Anello refused to take one, Dr. Van Drunick stated.
‘He was sitting in one of the ward rooms on the chairs, having calmed down but bursting into tears every time anyone spoke to him,’ he added.
The Wiegands included Dr. Van Drunick’s two-page statement in a new federal court filing that accuses Royal Caribbean of defaming Anello by blaming him for Chloe’s death and making ‘false statements’ about the tragedy.
The Wiegands have this week unveiled the findings of their own investigation, however, including a harrowing on-board reconstruction involving a doll and a man of near-identical height and stature to Anello. Pictured: Reenactment of the tragic day
Taking dozens of measurements and photos, they concluded that an 18in gap between the handrail and the glass window where Chloe fell would have made it impossible for Anello to lean out of the window
Anello would have had to be seven inches off the floor to even touch the window, they allege in the court filing. Furthermore, Anello would have needed extraordinarily long arms to have dangled the little girl over the edge of the 154,000-ton vessel
The parents say there was not a single sign, decal or safety notice alerting Anello that the window he was lifting Chloe up against so she could bang on the glass as she loved to do at her older brother’s ice hockey games, could be slid open: a breach of industry-wide safety laws.
The cruise operator applied last week to have the suit thrown out, producing video clips from two on board cameras to prove ‘unquestionably’ that Anello lent out of the window and therefore knew it was open.
Royal Caribbean has demonstrably lied to this court and, in so doing, Royal Caribbean has created a false narrative to accompany Royal Caribbean’s carefully selected CCTV.
But the Wiegands have this week unveiled the findings of their own investigation, including a harrowing on board reconstruction involving a doll and a man of near-identical height and stature to Anello.
Their lawyers accessed the Freedom of the Seas as it docked in Barbados on January 10 after Royal Caribbean notified them it was about to renovate the 11th deck.
Taking dozens of measurements and photos, they concluded that an 18in gap between the handrail and the glass window where Chloe fell would have made it impossible for Anello to lean out of the window.
He would have had to be seven inches off the floor to even touch the window, they allege in the court filing.
Furthermore, Anello would have needed extraordinarily long arms to have dangled the little girl over the edge of the 154,000-ton vessel.
‘Royal Caribbean is stating as fact that Mr Anello leaned his upper body out of the window for several seconds,’ their riposte states.
‘Because this would have been a physical impossibility for Mr Anello to accomplish with his feet on the deck, Royal Caribbean is lying.’
The Wiegands’ attorneys have further asked a US District Court in Miami to compel Royal Caribbean to release footage from 11 more cameras which they say were never disclosed to them before they boarded the ship.
Parents Alan and Kimberly Wiegand (pictured) blamed Royal Caribbean for failing to install safety devices or warning signs on a waist-height glass window that Anello says he didn’t realize was slid wide open
They say there was not a single sign, decal or safety notice alerting Anello that the window he was lifting Chloe up against so she could bang on the glass as she loved to do at her older brother’s ice hockey games, could be slid open: a breach of industry-wide safety laws
The Wiegands’ attorneys have further asked a US District Court in Miami to compel Royal Caribbean to release footage from 11 more cameras which they say were never disclosed to them before they boarded the ship
‘Royal Caribbean has demonstrably lied to this court and, in so doing, Royal Caribbean has created a false narrative to accompany Royal Caribbean’s carefully selected CCTV,’ the filing adds.
‘In taking just two steps to the right of the CCTV camera producing that deceptive angle, the significant distance between the railing at which Mr. Anello was standing and the window’s frame becomes apparent.
‘This is a crucial point because, in re-enacting the incident at the vessel inspection, plaintiff’s counsel (who is nearly identical in height and torso to Mr. Anello) could not lean ”out of the window frame” due to the distance between the railing and the window frame.’
It adds: ‘Chloe was within the ship at all times she was held by Mr. Anello. Chloe only fell when Mr. Anello tragically leaned her forward to bang on what he believed was a fixed panel.’
Taken together, Wiegand family attorneys say the doctor’s witness statement and the new evidence proves that Anello neither dangled Chloe out of the window, nor knew it was open as Royal Caribbean alleges.
A judge is yet to decide on the cruise giant’s motion to dismiss.
Angelic Chloe and her granddad were about to embark on a seven-night Caribbean cruise with her parents, older brother, fraternal grandparents and Anello’s wife Patricia, when tragedy unfolded.
The vacation was supposed take in the sights of San Juan, St Maarten, St Kitts, Antigua, St Lucia and Barbados.
Instead, it ended before Freedom of the Seas had even set off from San Juan, with Chloe dead and Anello of Valparaiso, Indiana facing up to three years in prison if he’s found guilty of causing the fall that claimed her life.
Anello has been charged with criminal neglect by Puerto Rican authorities for allegedly dropping Chloe from the side of the Freedom of the Seas
‘All I know is I was trying to reach the glass and I know that we leaned over to try to have her reach the glass, at that point she slipped,’ Anello told CBS. ‘Chloe being gone is the worst thing ever so I’m like, whatever, you know. There’s nothing worse that they could do to me than what’s already happened.’
The IT worker was allowed to fly back to the US but returned to San Juan after a judge issued an arrest warrant stating there was probable cause to charge him with negligent homicide.
Prosecutors have privately signaled they would consider letting Anello serve a period of probation in Indiana rather than face jail but he has so far refused to plead guilty.
The grandad is due back in court Monday.
‘All I know is I was trying to reach the glass and I know that we leaned over to try to have her reach the glass, at that point she slipped,’ Anello told CBS.
‘Chloe being gone is the worst thing ever so I’m like, whatever, you know. There’s nothing worse that they could do to me than what’s already happened.’
In a previous statement Royal Caribbean said: ‘The death of Chloe Wiegand is undeniably a heartbreaking tragedy that has prompted a criminal prosecution of Chloe’s step-grandfather and a civil lawsuit brought by the Wiegand family attorneys.
‘Our position in the matter is outlined in our Motion to Dismiss, which we were legally mandated to do in response to the civil complaint. The motion was filed in Federal Court in South Florida and is available to the public.’
Michael Winkleman, a leading maritime attorney representing the Wiegand’s in their civil action, told DailyMail.com: ‘The evidence submitted to the court from the inspection exonerates Mr Anello because it shows this was no crime, but rather a tragic, preventable accident that never would have occurred had Royal Caribbean followed the industry-standard window fall prevention codes that are designed for the singular purpose of preventing children from falling out of open windows.
‘The family calls on the Puerto Rican authorities to review this new data and to drop all criminal charges against Mr Anello.’