Toddler Drowns at Sewage Plant

A mother watched in horror Sunday as rescue divers pulled the lifeless body of her 3-year-old son from the murky waters of a pit at an abandoned sewage plant. A member of the Hamilton Township dive team found Zakee "Moyo" Jamil Watson Jr. about 4:45 p.m. after a 90-minute search.

Paramedics were unable to revive the child, and authorities ruled the death an accidental drowning.

The child's mother, Maria Fradera, 22, had taken Mother's Day off from her job at McDonald's in Hammonton to spend the holiday with her three children.

The boy had apparently left home about 3 p.m. to join some other children going to a playground, the newspaper reported. Ten minutes later a couple of children returned to say the boy was in the water.

The pit, a popular place for the neighborhood children to look for frogs, was filled with about 12 feet of water and surrounded by 10-foot-high barbed-wire fence with a gate.

According to Egg Harbor city officials there was a chain on that fence at the sewage treatment plant, but somehow three toddlers were able to get inside.

"Yeah, it's maintained. The fences are maintained to make sure that nobody gets in. But as we know, we can put all the fences up that we want, and if children are curious and want to get into places, they're going to get into places," said Mark Emmer, the city's public safety director.

Some reports said that the boy was trying to get away from bees and a nest when he slipped in.

Public Safety Director Mark Emmer said it is unclear how the children got into the pit area and investigators are trying to determine exactly what happened.

Some residents of the area said that city has not done enough to keep children out of the abandoned plant. Watson's family gathered for a vigil Sunday to remember the little boy.

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