Police in China investigate death of two-year-old girl who fell out of 8th-floor window after being forgotten in lift by nanny

The theory is that the toddler accidentally fell out of a low-lying window on a floor she was taken to after being forgotten in a lift by her nanny
The father has filed a police report and the maid is being held on bond during the investigation

China society

Yingjie Wangin Beijing

Published: 9:00am, 28 Jun 2022

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A family in eastern China filed a police report after their two-year-old daughter mysteriously fell to her death from the eighth floor of a residential building. It happened after the toddler was taken to that floor because she was accidentally left behind in a lift by her nanny.

According to the June 14 surveillance footage from Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province, the toddler, nicknamed Little Cherry, was left in the lift by her nanny, surnamed Wu. The woman was engrossed in her mobile phone before getting out of the lift and had only pushed the child’s scooter out of the opening doors.

Wu only briefly checked if the little girl was following her and did not realise the toddler had stayed in the lift until it was too late. When the girl let out a cry, Wu tried to use the scooter to stop the lift doors from closing, but she was too late, and the girl was taken to the eighth floor of the building.

There was no surveillance video once the girl got out of the lift. However, the eighth-floor window, only 45 centimetres above the floor, was found open, leading to a theory that the scared little girl accidentally fell out.

The nanny said she panicked when she realised the girl was left in the lift and frantically went up to the eighth floor, seeing that it had stopped there. However, Wu could not find the toddler, whose body was later discovered on the second-floor podium.

Surveillance video showed the nanny pulling the scooter out of the lift without realising the toddler had not followed her. Photo: Weibo

The father, surnamed Chen, laid the blame for the fatal accident at the feet of Wu, for her negligence.

“My daughter was 21 months old and had only recently learned to walk,” Chen told Zhejiang Daily. “My heart is breaking into pieces knowing she is no longer with us.”

According to Chen, Wu did not fully tell him and his wife about the details of the incident, causing them to look for the girl in the wrong places. When they found the girl 30 minutes later, it was too late to save the child.

“Wu is a full-time nanny with a senior baby caregiver certificate and professional training. How come she did not provide us with all of the details?” Chen stated. “If we had got our daughter to the hospital sooner, we might have saved her.”

Chen filed a police report because he believed Wu acted negligently and had deliberately concealed the facts.

Wu is currently being held on bail and said she was deeply sorry for the girl’s fall and would accept legal responsibility for it.

“It is my fault. I looked at my phone, but I did not do it on purpose, and I tried to save her,” Wu said.

The girl’s father filed a police report after the incident. Photo: Weibo

With the case still being investigated, Lan Tianbin, a lawyer and partner at the Fadedongheng Law Firm in Jiangsu province, told Jimu News, a mainland media outlet, that the nanny would likely face charges of death by negligence.

“Wu should have foreseen that her actions could result in the death of another person, but she failed to anticipate it due to negligence and carelessness,” Lan said.

Many people online believed the nanny should not bear full responsibility for the tragedy, despite the outpouring of rage directed at her.

“It seems like a lot to ask of a babysitter to anticipate that ‘if I don’t let the child out of the lift first, she could die’,” one person commented, adding that the nanny did look at the girl as she exited the lift to see if she was following her.