Two toddler sisters who drowned after sneaking into a backyard swimming pool in Texas have been named.
Officials with Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences identified the girls as Kelsey Kite, 2, and Kinsley Kite, 3, when approached by the Daily Mail.
The Houston suburb of Katy was thrown into bedlam on Wednesday morning when the two snuck into a backyard pool area and drowned.
Their mother and grandfather were asleep inside the property at the time the two went into the water, police confirmed.
Kelsey and Kinsley are thought to have crept through a patio door to the rear of the property and into the pool.
Their grandmother returned home from a grocery store to discover them in the water, and immediately starting yelling as she tried to pull them from the depths.
As her daughter and husband ran to her aid, two neighbors who heard the commotion also ran to help, while a woman dialed 911.
When sheriff’s deputies arrived, they found paramedics performing life-saving measures on the siblings, who were soon rushed by helicopter to a nearby hospital.
Kelsey and Kinsley Kite are thought to have crept through a patio door to the rear of the property and into the pool, seen here
Unfortunately, the sisters were pronounced dead at the hospital, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez posted to social media later that evening.
Gonzalez said: ‘Please keep everyone involved- including the loved ones and first responders – in your thoughts and prayers.’
In the state of Texas, it is required by law for homeowners with swimming pools to have a locked fence or gate surrounding the perimeter of the area.
Heartbroken neighbors were left devastated after hearing the two sisters did not survive the horrific ordeal.
David Green said he was outside walking his dog when he suddenly heard a loud scream.
‘They’ve been really great neighbors for 25 years,’ Green told KHOU 11. ‘I really feel for them.’
Another neighbor named Maria told Abc 13 they were ‘beautiful girls’ and the whole situation is ‘so so sad.’
Chester Tucker, who also lives nearby, told the outlet: ‘It’s just sad to see that two little girls… lost their lives. It’s pretty sad.’
Another neighbor named Maria said they were ‘beautiful girls’ and the whole situation is ‘so so sad’
The girls were found in the water by their grandmother, who had just returned home from the grocery store
The siblings’ tragic deaths come just weeks after three brothers died after one fell into a frozen pond and the other two tried to save his life near Bonham, Texas.
Cheyenne Hangaman and her six children were staying at a friend’s home across the street from the private pond in late January when the unthinkable happened.
She said she had warned them to stay away from it as conditions turned brutal during the weekend’s winter storm.
However, her six-year-old son Howard had tried to ‘skate’ on the frozen pond and fell in. His brothers EJ, nine, and Kaleb, eight, then leapt into the water to try and save him.
First responders and a neighbor pulled the two older boys from the water, and the youngest sibling was found after an extensive search of the pond.
The three boys were elementary school students in the Bonham Independent School District, which had canceled classes due to the treacherous Winter Storm Fern that swept across the nation.
