Police charge woman in child’s drowning death at Myrtle Beach hotel pool

A woman was arrested Thursday with the drowning death of a 4-year-old, who the Horry County Coroner’s office said drowned in the pool at the Crown Reef Beach Resort and Waterpark.

Myrtle Beach police charged Destiny Morgan, 30, with unlawful neglect of a child. Police have not released any other information about the arrest, including Morgan’s relation to the child.

The child, Demi Williams, was transported from a pool at the resort to the Grand Strand Medical Center at 8:45 p.m. Thursday night but was pronounced dead at 9:15 p.m. The coroner’s office ruled that the child died from asphyxiation due to drowning.

Police responded to the hotel and found the child, unresponsive. Morgan told police she left Williams in the lazy river in a tube but without her pool floats. Morgan returned to the hot tub and minutes later tried to find Williams, according to arrest warrants.

There was a crowd surrounding the 4-year-old by the time Morgan got there.

The child, her mother and siblings were visiting Myrtle Beach from Kentucky, said Tamara Willard from the coroner’s office Friday afternoon.

A representative from Crown Reef Beach Resort and Waterpark declined to comment Friday.

The hotel is near the intersection of 29th Avenue South and South Ocean Boulevard in Myrtle Beach.

The Sun News has requested the arrest warrants for Morgan.

Thursday’s drowning was not the first time in recent years that a child has drowned at the resort. In 2018, a 7-year-old girl drowned in a pool at the resort while on vacation with her family. Myrtle Beach police later charged the girl’s mother, Latoya Fayall, with child neglect, though those charges were later dropped due to a lack of evidence.

Fayall in October last year filed a lawsuit against the resort, claiming that the owners of the hotel were at fault for not having a lifeguard on duty when the pool was open.

This story was originally published April 2, 2021 at 5:58 PM.