Lorie Thermidor missing Tampa Florida toddler found dead in lake. Believed to have drowned after wandering away from her family home.
A missing toddler who wandered away from her Florida home has ended in tragedy after the missing two year old girl was found dead in a lake just hours after she vanished, according to authorities.
The search for Lorie Thermidor began Friday around 3:40pm near Redwood Point Drive in Tampa after her father realized the young girl was nowhere to be found.
The child was last seen wearing a pink onesie with grey polka dots.
It’s possible Lorie left home and accidentally walked into a wooded area located nearby,’ police said.
Police said the un-named father notified authorities ‘within minutes’ upon realizing the girl had disappeared. Unclear is the length of time that had transpired between the girl ‘going missing’ and her father noticing the child’s absence. The child’s mother’s whereabouts was unclear.
An intense search for Lorie quickly sparked, with officers and dozens of volunteers combing the area for leads.
Two bloodhounds and a police helicopter aided in the search, Tampa Bay Times reports.
Additionally, divers were sent to search a lake across from the family’s home.
That’s where authorities found the body of the little girl around 8:30pm that evening.
‘Sadly, the child was found in the lake deceased,’ authorities said in a Facebook post.
No additional details about the incident were released by authorities.
Lorie’s purported drowning death makes her the 17th child to drown in Florida this year.
Every year Florida’s abundance of pools, retention ponds and beaches turn into death traps for some children. 2018 saw a spike in child drownings in Florida, when 88 children died, up 7 percent from 2017. In 2019, 65 children died in drownings in Florida.
Unclear is how the two year old girl managed to ‘wander’ off from the family home.
