NAVARRE BEACH, Fla. (AP/WFLA) — Police searching for a missing toddler in the Florida Panhandle found her drowned in a canal near her home.
They have arrested the 1-year-old girl’s father and charged him with negligent manslaughter.
News outlets report that Tracy Potter of Navarre Beach was arrested early Monday and booked into the Santa Rosa County Jail where he was being held without bond.
According to the news reports, deputies responded to the family’s home Sunday evening after receiving a call about a missing child.
WEAR-TV reports the child was last seen alive Sunday morning while walking with Potter on Gulf Boulevard. Potter told deputies he walking back to his girlfriend’s home “when he became dizzy and short of breath,” and sat down on a bench.
Police said he passed out on the bench and was awoken by a deputy. He returned to his girlfriend’s home without the child and fell asleep on her picnic table until she woke him up and he moved to her couch and slept until about 7 p.m.
Around 7:15 p.m., the girlfriend reported the child missing. The girl’s body was found a short time later in the canal.
