The following comes from a November 21 Press Democrat article by Randi Rossman and Julie Johnson:
A Healdsburg father suspected of drowning his 4-year-old daughter in the baptismal pool of a downtown church was arrested hours after he carried her unresponsive body to the nearby police department, police officials said Monday.
Gerardo Mendoza Ordaz, 42, stood naked in the back parking lot of the police station Sunday night and cried out — calling for “help” and “police” — as he held his daughter, who was clothed, shoeless and soaking wet, said police officials.
Another child, a 9-year-old son who wore shorts but no shirt, was with his father and sister, police said.
The girl was rushed to a hospital, but she did not survive. The boy did not appear to be injured, according to police.
Investigators suspect Ordaz brought his children into the unlocked sanctuary of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church at East and Matheson streets. How long they were there wasn’t clear but at 8:30 p.m. they were outside the nearby Center Street police station seeking help.
The church was routinely left unlocked for the public on Sundays into the night and police believe the family were the only ones inside, Healdsburg Police Chief Kevin Burke said.
With his son as the only witness, Ordaz submerged his daughter in the one- to two-feet-deep baptismal pool in the sanctuary, estimated to be about eight feet wide and 10 feet long, said Lt. Matt Jenkins, who was overseeing the investigation.
“We do believe she was drowned intentionally,” Burke said at a press conference Monday afternoon.
Ordaz and his wife had four children, including the girl and her 9-year-old brother, and the family lives just outside city limits, Burke said.
So very sad. But a good reason not to have a “pool”.
On would be hard pressed to drown in our baptismal font.
Praying for them.
I shall pray for the soul of the poor child, but as The Veiled Threat wrote, why are there pools in the churches? For over a thousand years the Catholic Church had the priest POUR water on the head of the one to be baptized. Now, the new trend is IMMERSION. To an extent, it is the Church’s fault that this happened because these silly pools have been installed in many churches.
The man is obviously mentally deranged and attacking the size of the baptismal font is a cheap attack. This is truly a devastating story and more so for the 9 year old brother who witnessed this tragedy. May Our Lady take this family into her loving arms and heal them.
I am praying for the family and the parish. There must be some rite to cleanse the baptismal pool of the evil that took place there. I don’t know that I could ever dip my hand in there to bless myself again.
My sincere condolences to the family.
I do not believe anyone at the church foresaw this tragedy happening, but I suggest covering such pools when they are not in use with a heavy child proof cover lest some child wandering to the pool area by him/herself fall in accidentally.
I am thinking, given the description of the father’s behavior when the authorities arrived, that there was a severe mental breakdown and/or satanic activity involved. I wonder if we will learn the full truth in the course of the inevitable legal proceedings.
What a tragedy. Does this mean the church will have to be reconsecrated or blessed. Sacrilege and a murder took place. So sad.
Parishes do not need to have pools. That is nothing more than the heresy of antiquarianism. There is a reason baptismal fonts developed organically as a tradition in the Church.
Regardless, churches are no places for pools. This is a cheap fad. that needs to end. Baptismal fonts developed organically as a tradition in the Church and the murdered little girl could never have been drowned in a baptismal font. Stop using the Church to promote fads! Enough is enough!