Two-year-old boy found dead after hours-long search in Indy neighborhood

INDIANAPOLIS — Flowers, stuffed animals and balloons now lie in front of a tranquil pond in an Indianapolis neighborhood. The location was the scene of a tragedy on Saturday evening.

An Indianapolis Fire Department dive team found the body of 2-year-old Anna Mandanda Saturday evening after searchers had been searching since early afternoon.

Police said Mandanda was last seen near the 6900 block of Governors Point Boulevard on Saturday afternoon around 3 p.m. Mandanda’s family lives in a quiet neighborhood in the south, just off Southport Road.

Police released images of the little girl and urged people to be vigilant as officers began searching around 7pm on Saturday.

Several neighbors also took part in the search in and around the small neighborhood.

“We looked behind these houses, there are several woods here,” said Jim Rusler, one of the neighbors searching. “We went via Southport Road because there are ponds over there. We drove down the side of Southport where there are taller weeds and thought maybe she had gone there. We checked the bushes, we looked for her everywhere and every place we could find.”

But in the end, Mandanda was found dead in the retention pond in the center of the district.

Rusler and other neighbors were there when the search was completed.

“Screaming terror,” Jim Rusler said, describing what he heard as officers broke the news to Mandanda’s family. “There was so much screaming, you could just tell that people were just devastated.”

Now the memorial for the 2-year-old grows as the family and neighborhood mourn a tragedy all too common for young children.

“Drowning is the leading cause of death in children ages 1 to 4 in the United States,” said Adam Katchmarchi, CEO of the National Drowning Prevention Alliance. “It’s not car accidents, it’s not cancer, it’s not gunshots, it’s drowning.”

Katchmarchi said this is a tragedy that could happen to anyone.

“Every parent I’ve worked with from an advocacy perspective who has lost a child to drowning is a good parent, they took care of their children, we can’t watch our children 24/7,” he said.

Katchmarchi and the NDPA work at multiple levels across the country to educate and prevent drownings.

The NDPA recommends five levels of prevention to prevent drowning. Barriers and alarms to warn and restrict access to the water, supervision during swimming hours, water literacy, appropriate use of life jackets and emergency preparedness.

An IMPD spokesperson said the investigation into what led to Mandanda ending up in the pond is still ongoing as IMPD attempts to assist the family.