San Jose day care owners arrested after 2 children drown in pool

The owners of a San Jose home day care where two children drowned earlier this month have been arrested, police said Friday.

Nina Fathizadeh and Shahin Gheblehshenas are suspected of neglect of two children resulting in death, and neglect of a child resulting in non-life threatening injuries, according to San Jose police. Both suspects own and operate Happy Happy Daycare in the city's Almaden neighborhood.

Both Fathizadeh, 41, and Gheblehshenas, 64, surrendered at San Jose police headquarters after arrest warrants were issued. The Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office said both Fathizadeh and Gheblehshenas will be arraigned on Dec. 6. View the charging documents here.

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The owners of the daycare center have not responded to NBC Bay Area’s previous requests for comment.

The Santa Clara County Coroner’s Office identified the two victims as 1-year-old Payton Cobb of Hollister and 1-year-old Lillian Hanan of San Jose.

A third unidentified child was rescued from the pool during the Oct. 2 incident with non-life threatening injuries, according to police.

Happy Happy Daycare had been cited for staffing and monitoring violations by state licensing officials who initially raised separate concerns about the potential for children to access the backyard pool where the deaths later occurred, state licensing records show.

Questions emerged immediately after the drownings of two toddlers in San Jose’s Happy Happy Day Care. NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Unit has been analyzing past inspections of the center and citations the state issued for violations. Hilda Gutierrez reports.

Teuton88 on October 13rd, 2023 at 23:39 UTC »

Pool and Daycare just seems like a terrible combination.

CalifaDaze on October 13rd, 2023 at 23:14 UTC »

I don't think homes with daycare in them should have pools.

Sharks77 on October 13rd, 2023 at 22:52 UTC »

The Mercury News has a bit more in-depth info: https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/10/13/daycare-owners-arrested-in-san-jose-child-drownings/

On the morning of the drownings, detectives wrote, Fathizadeh let the two girls and a 2-year-old boy into the backyard and reportedly could see the unsecured pool gate but did not make any effort to close it. She then apparently proceeded to the kitchen, and out of view of the children for at least five minutes.

When Fathizadeh went out to check on the children, she found the boy floating in the shallow end of the pool, pulled him out, called 911 and started CPR, according the investigation. But the girls were not tended to until she woke her brother, who was asleep elsewhere in the home, and found the two girls floating in the deep end of the pool.

The girls were pulled out and the adults tried CPR on them before they were taken to a hospital, the investigative document states.