Musiq Jordan-Dye, 2, died in a retention pond. Her family is suing the apartment complex for negligence.
Published on February 21, 2024 at 1:55 pm
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Derricka Jordan wore a shirt bearing the image of her 2-year-old daughter Wednesday as she spoke emotionally about the child’s death last fall in an apartment complex’s retention pond.
Musiq Jordan-Dye was found late Oct. 2 in the pond at the Paradise Island complex off Southside Boulevard. The child’s family held a news conference Wednesday to announce they’re suing the complex’s owner, operator and management.
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Jordan’s attorney, Adam Finkel, said the complex should have surrounded the steeply sloped pond with fencing for safety.
Finkel said property owners and managers at other complexes have followed the law and made their retention ponds safer. But management at the complex on Paradise Island Boulevard has not responded to requests to make the pond safer, Finkel said.
“We reached out to them directly, over and over again, and said ‘Do what you need to do and tell us that it’s being done. Put some of this family’s concern at ease so they know that another family is not sitting in danger,'” Finkel said. “We’ve heard nothing. They told us they are working on getting an inspection done. What does that even mean? … Send out a company and put a barrier around it.”
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Fogelman Properties CEO Justin Marshall, whose company manages and operates the complex, said their “sympathies are with the family as they continue to heal from their loss.” But they do not comment on pending litigation. Complex owner/operator DRA Advisors LLC, did not respond to Jacksonville Today‘s request for comment.
Jordan said she “misses everything about my baby” and visits her gravesite every day.
“She was the light of our family,” Jordan said, pausing to take a deep breath. “I’m here today with my lawyer so this won’t happen to nobody else’s child. I would hate for this to happen to anybody else’s child. I don’t want nobody going through what I’m going through.”
A GoFundMe page set up by the Musiq’s mother and aunt said she had autism and was nonverbal.
Of the 61 children’s deaths listed this year on the Florida Department of Children and Families website, seven are from drowning, two in retention ponds and another in a canal.
None of those deaths occurred in Jacksonville or nearby counties, but eight drowning deaths were listed in 2023 in Jacksonville, two of them in retention ponds. One was Musiq, and the other was a 4-year-old with autismn who died after wandering away from home July 3.
Finkel said the law requires “layers of prevention” to prevent drownings in ponds and swimming pools.
“When we think of pools, we all think of how a barrier must be around it, and there must be a required lock,” Finkl said. “Far too often have we seen property managers and owners that don’t … actually have a proper barrier around it.”
Barriers, fencing and locking or latching gates are ways to keep children out of any body of waters, according to the National Drowning Prevention Alliance. Its website says drowning remains a top cause of unintentional injury death for older children, teenagers and adults, with young children the most vulnerable “due in part to their innocent and curious nature.”
