2 children die after being pulled from pond at Holtsville town house development

Two children died in an apparent drowning Saturday after going into the pond at the Fairfield Townhouses at Holtsville development, Suffolk County police said.

Police received a call at 3:16 p.m. from a family member of the two girls, ages 2 and 4, that they were missing, authorities said.

Officers responding to the scene joined good Samaritans who were searching for the children, police said.

At around 3:20 p.m., the girls were found in the pond and pulled out unresponsive, according to authorities.

Dan Panico, the Brookhaven Town supervisor, said 911 dispatchers helped instruct callers how to perform CPR on the children. 

The children were taken to Stony Brook University Hospital, where they were pronounced dead, police said.

Suffolk homicide detectives are still investigating the deaths.

Neighbors in the usually quiet complex were reeling Saturday night, some standing in hushed circles in shock as crime scene tape remained posted around the pond at around 8 p.m.

The residents didn’t want to be quoted by name but described a frantic mother searching for her children earlier Saturday afternoon and desperate efforts to find the children.

A call to Fairfield Properties' management office seeking information was not immediately returned. 

With Matthew Chayes