Authorities pulled the bodies of a couple out from the Delaware River in Pennsylvania on the morning of July 4 while their 5-year-old daughter was found waiting for the father in a car near the scene.
Near the scene, police saw an abandoned Nissan SUV. A 5-year-old girl was sitting alone in the car, who told police she was with her father, according to ABC6. A child’s pink bike could be seen lying in the rear of the vehicle.
Marines declared him dead after he was pulled out of the water.
As a precautionary measure, the child was taken to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and is now with family. The police confirmed that the dead man and the woman were the child’s parents.
The woman was identified as Anjania Patterson, 28, and the man as Tim Siler, 39.
The police initially believed that the man and the woman were married, but family said they were not. They also revealed the couple had an abusive relationship, with many registered incidents of domestic violence, according to ABC6.
“I never saw something like that in my life,” Brian Coffield, a witness told CBS Local. “Not like that. I feel bad for the child growing up having to know about it, hear about it.”
One of Siler’s neighbor told CBS Local that the couple kept to themselves. “They didn’t barely speak to anyone on the block but they weren’t mean,” he said.
In another incident that happened in Delaware River on Thursday, a fisherman found a human leg in Philadelphia’s Fishtown section.
A part of the right leg was still attached to the sneaker when discovered, and the police are searching the location for other body parts. The investigation is ongoing and no further details, including the identity of the victim, has been revealed.
