Wiegand Family Condemns Release of Video of Daughter’s Tragic Cruise Ship Fall

The saga surrounding Chloe Wiegand’s tragic fall from a Royal Caribbean cruise ship in July continues. This week, various news outlets reported that Puerto Rican authorities offered Chloe’s grandfather, Salvatore Anello, a plea deal for charges stemming from her death. Anello was holding 18-month-old Chloe to an 11th-floor window of the ship when she accidentally fell through and Puerto Rican authorities subsequently charged Anello with negligent homicide. As the family grapples with Chloe’s death and Anello’s legal situation, someone has released a video of Chloe’s fall on the internet.

Wiegands talking to the TODAY show about Chloe’s death

CNN.com reports that the Wiegand family is condemning the release of the video, which appears to show Chloe falling from her grandfather’s arms. According to CNN, the video appears to show Anello lean through an opening [presumably the window] then picking Chloe up and holding her to the opening before she fell. 

Some have suggested that this version of events contradicts Anello’s version, in which he said that he held Chloe up to a window that he thought was closed. In the initial days after the tragedy the Wiegand family insisted that Anello had held Chloe up to the window so that she could bang on it as she had previously done at hockey games. 

The Wiegands’ attorney accuses the Puerto Rican authorities of releasing the video of Chloe’s fall in bad faith. But CNN reports that Puerto Rico’s Attorney General denies knowing who released the video. 

The Wiegands are suing Royal Caribbean, claiming that the company should not have had an open window that far up the ship without some kind of warning as to the danger.