PEMBROKE PARK —
A toddler miraculously emerged from the depths after a violent quarrel sent her parents' car plunging into a murky lake.
Deputies attribute her survival to an unusual factor: a buoyant diaper.
"All of a sudden this little thing popped up like a cork," said Deputy Cazi Navarro, who plucked 3-year-old Sariyah Michel from the dark waters of an unnamed lake in an industrial park at about 12:30 a.m. Tuesday.
Navarro had earlier pulled Sariyah's mother, Catherine Copeland, 33, to safety.
Sariyah's father, Sandro Michael, 27, drowned in the submerged car. Court records show he was on probation from an earlier domestic battery charge — he had three — and was under court order to have no personal contact with Copeland.
Sariyah was taken to Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital in Hollywood and was listed in critical but stable condition. Her mother kept vigil by her side throughout the day.
According to Broward Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Keyla Concepcion, deputies were called to a RaceTrac gas station on Pembroke Road to investigate a report of a couple fighting. Witnesses said they saw a black car swerving wildly, with Copeland driving and Michel hitting her, causing her to lose control and pitch into the 40-foot-deep lake.
"When our deputies responded to the scene, they couldn't find the couple, but one of our deputies heard a woman screaming for help," Concepcion said.
BSO Cpl. Rachelle Richardson tracked the screams to a lake along the 3800 block of Southwest 20th Avenue, mere blocks from Copeland's West Park home. The beam of her flashlight revealed a desperate woman standing atop a sinking car.
"She was screaming, 'I don't know how to swim!' " said Navarro, who had just arrived at the scene. "So I stripped down and went and got her."
As she was being pulled to shore, Copeland yelled that her child was still in the car.
"She kept screaming, 'My baby, my baby!' " Richardson recounted.
As deputies searched for the missing toddler, Navarro spotted Sariyah rising to the surface, apparently propelled by her puffy plastic diaper.
"I saw it was a Pamper, and attached to the Pamper was this little girl," he said.
He grabbed the child and other deputies pulled him to the bank. "At that point the baby was kind of lifeless, her arms were dangling, no responsiveness, no consciousness," said Deputy Michael Francis, who assisted in the rescue.
Sariyah was rushed to the hospital, as was her mother, who was treated and released. Family members declined to discuss the case.
A Sheriff's Office dive team later found Michel's body. "They were able to go down to the car and they were able to confirm that he was inside the car and was deceased," Concepcion said.
Michel had three domestic violence arrests, at least two involving Copeland, and as of June was on a year's probation for the most recent one. He was to have no contact with Copeland, whom he married in October 2005, except by phone, text or email to arrange for picking up their child for visitation.
The 5-foot-9, 260-pound man was sentenced to a year's probation in January 2010 for domestic battery, again involving Copeland. The previous year saw another domestic battery arrest for Michel, but records do not indicate whether Copeland was the victim. In the two recent cases, Michel was ordered to attend anger management classes.
Ronald Bolds, who identified himself as Copeland's uncle, said the couple was "having a few problems."
"She had a little argument or something with her old man, so he grabbed the steering wheel and tried to kill them both," Bolds said in an interview with Reliable News Media at the scene of the accident.
Deputies did not know what the couple were arguing about. The case is still under investigation.
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