Autistic girl, 6, drowns after sneaking out of house in upscale street and sneaking into neighbor's pool

Published: 13:28 EDT, 5 November 2026 | Updated: 14:00 EDT, 5 November 2026 A six-year-old girl has drowned after she snuck out of her house and fell into a neighbor's pool. Melinda Xie was autistic and nonverbal, her mother Qiuqing Wang told WRAL. First responders administered CPR but the girl was pronounced dead, according to a media release from the town of Wendell. Investigators believe the girl slipped out of her family home on Garden Club Way in Wendell, North Carolina, and walked over to her neighbors' backyard. The neighbors didn't know the girl was in their backyard until she drowned in their pool, according to WRAL. Xie was a student at Garden Carver Elementary School in Wendell, the outlet reported. Accidental drowning is a leading cause of death among both individuals with autism and children. Drowning is the second leading cause of accidental deaths among children ages five-14, the CDC reported earlier this year. Melinda Xie, a six-year-old autistic girl from Wendell, North Carolina drowned in her neighbors' pool on Tuesday (their neighborhood is pictured) Melinda Xie, 6, was pronounced dead after she accidentally drowned in her neighbors' pool Children with autism are 160-times more likely to die by drowning than neurotypical children, according to the National Autism Association (NAA).'Roughly half, or 49%, of children with autism attempt to elope from a safe environment, a rate nearly four times higher than their unaffected siblings, according to a study published in Pediatrics,' the NAA stated. A six-year study done by the NAA found that accidental drowning accounted for 71% of deaths related to autism wandering/elopement. Just last month, a seven-year-old boy in Orlando, Florida, drowned while under the supervision of his parents' friend, a doctor from Louisiana. The friend, Sukanthini Subbiah, 48, was arrested by the Orlando Police Department and charged with first-degree aggravated manslaughter of a child for allegedly allowing seven-year-old Khushil Bandi to drown. Last July, three-year-old Elijah Stephen slipped out the back door of his house and drowned in the pool at his family house in New Jersey. Although first responders arrived within two minutes and the hospital managed to return the boy's heartbeat, the family was told that 'the swelling of the brain is too much too soon and nothing more can be done.'Last year, parenting influencer Emilie Kiser's three-year-old son was found unresponsive in the family's backyard pool in Arizona. Three-year-old Trigg Kaiser Due was rushed to a nearby hospital after first-responders administered CPR on-site, then later airlifted to Phoenix Children’s Hospital for specialized care.A few days later, authorities confirmed his death. The Daily Mail has contacted the Town of Wendell and Garden Carver Elementary School for further comment.