Fourty-Five children have died by drowning in Florida this year, according to statistics from the Florida Department of Children and Families. Evelyn Kaylani Geer is one of them. Her parents Cassie and Richard Geer are finally speaking out to prevent a tragedy from happening to another family.

Evelyn Kaylani Geer was a miracle baby. Her parents tried to conceive for years.

“She was a bright ray of sunshine she was always happy and smiling and dancing and she loved making silly faces at herself in the mirror.” “She loved tormenting her brothers always jumping on them,” said Cassie.

Evelyn also loved Carebears. She had a huge collection. Her father said she was ‘Daddy’s girl.’

 “We’d be at the store for hours and I’d just carry her around because that’s what she wanted.” “She was my biggest reason for every day she was my world,” said Richard.

Evelyn  was taken from them too soon at just four years old. Just before her death her family found out she had autism.

The Geers were staying in an airbnb after an old pipe broke in the home that they rent.  Cassie and Richard went to bed with Evelyn sleeping in between them.

Cassie said, “I woke up and saw that she wasn’t lying between us and so I got up to see where she was.” “The absolute terror when I saw that front door opened.”

Cassie screamed and woke up her husband. They searched for Evelyn and couldn’t find her so they called 911.

Crews searched for Evelyn and hours later found her in a canal near the home. 

Richard said, “She was found somewhere between the back of the house where we were at and here we don’t even know where she went in the water.”

Richard and Cassie are trying to grieve the best that they can. They also want to prevent another tragedy from happening.

Richard has done research and said parents can buy a sticky alarm at Walmart that beeps when a door is opened. 

Cassie said she hopes more parents will teach their children how to swim early.

“I do think there needs to be more of an importance put on swim lessons for your children,” said Cassie.

Cassie and Richard are currently living in a hotel. They said they couldn’t stay in the Airbnb after what happened to Evelyn.

 They said rental home that they’ve lived in for 12 years is still unliveable, they hope that things will get better soon.

“We haven’t really had a chance to grieve because of the issue.” “There was mold growing in the home so we couldn’t stay there.”