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A woman who police say was responsible for supervising a girl who drowned in a hotel pool has been charged with manslaughter.
The girl, 4 1/2-year-old Iyana Allen, drowned Feb. 27 while attending a birthday party for a family friend at the Omaha Executive Inn & Suites near 72nd and Grover Streets. Police say Deshayla L. Neal, 35, of 4089 D St., was the primary caregiver responsible for Iyana at the time of the drowning. Officers said an investigation determined the girl was not being properly monitored. Reports at the time of the event indicated that she had been missing for more than an hour.
A felony warrant charging Neal with manslaughter was issued Wednesday. Neal turned herself in Thursday afternoon at Central Police Headquarters. She was booked into the Douglas County Jail.
When officers were called to the hotel about 10:40 p.m. on that Saturday in February, someone was administering CPR to Iyana. She was transported to Bergan Mercy Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.
Iyana was a preschooler in the Head Start program at Kennedy Elementary School. Relatives said she had been looking forward to starting kindergarten in the fall.
She would have turned 5 on April 3.
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