A father had to be dragged from a swollen river after he jumped into the water to try and find his missing toddler, an inquest heard today.
Xielo Maruziva, aged two, plunged into the River Soar while on a winter walk with his aunts at a nature reserve near his dad Bradley Maruziva’s home.
Mr Maruziva told a court how he raced to the Aylestone Meadows reserve in Leicester after his mother received a call from one of the boy’s aunts who sounded as though she was ‘panicking’.
He told a coroner how he ‘got straight in’ the river, adding: ‘I couldn’t see anything.
‘The current was very strong. Because I directly jumped in, it took me underneath. It took me under the bridge, and I had to hold on to a branch because I physically didn’t have any strength. I was just trying to search.’
Mr Maruziva said he was in the water for 15 to 20 minutes, and had to be physically removed from the river by police after he refused their pleas to climb out of water.
He was taken to hospital suffering from hypothermia.
Xielo had been collected by his aunties from his nearby father’s home a short time before the incident, the court heard.
Xielo Maruziva was walking ahead of his two aunts – Nicole and Memory Maruziva – when he ‘stopped and turned and then disappeared from view into the river’
A police cordon on a footpath beside the River Soar following the tragedy
One of the aunts, Nicole Maruziva, the sister of Mr Maruziva, had also waded in to the river in an attempt to save her two-year-old nephew, an inquest jury heard.
Xielo had been walking a few steps ahead of Ms Maruziva and a second aunt, Memory Maruziva, when he ‘disappeared from view’ and slipped into the water in February 2024, the court heard.
But despite a huge rescue operation, the toddler couldn’t be found – and it was almost four months before his body was finally recovered, in a stream close to where he entered the water.
An inquest was told there was flooding in the nature reserve where the tragedy took place – but no signs to warn visitors of the risks.
Coroner Professor Catherine Mason said Xielo disappeared into the water at around 5pm on Sunday February 18.
She added: ‘On that evening water level was very high and the river was flowing fast following flooding due to heavy rainfall.’
Nicole Maruziva sobbed as she gave evidence describing the moment her nephew Xielo entered the river, and her desperate attempts to save him.
She told how the trio had crossed a walled stone bridge, pausing to take a selfie photo as they did so, and had ‘no concerns’ about flooding in the area.
But as Xielo walked on ahead and stepped off the end of the bridge a matter of yards away, he suddenly vanished beneath the surface of the water.
Nicole said she believed the bridge met a path that carried on through a set of meadows, adding: ‘I saw Xielo turn to the side and taking what looked like a step, but once he had taken that step he wasn’t there anymore, so I ran to the point where he turned, and looked down and that is when I saw that bit opening up on to water.
Aylestone Meadows is a 271 acre Local Nature Reserve a mile from the city centre
Peter Faulding (right), CEO of private underwater search and recovery company Specialist Group International (SGI), joined the search operation for two-year-old Xielo Maruziva
‘So I jumped into the water because I couldn’t see him, because the water was muddy, and I was just using my arms to try and find him.
‘But when I jumped into the water, it was up to my chest.
‘It was deep water and I was trying to find him with my arms but I couldn’t feel anything under the water, so I started shouting out because there were other people on the bridge.
‘I shouted I needed help, and I was shouting there is a baby in the water, and the current took me from the point where I jumped in. I just got swept, and I was still trying to cling on to anything in the water hoping I would be able to grab his arm or leg or something, but I didn’t find him.
‘I didn’t even think about it (her own safety). I just needed to get him.’
Memory told the inquest at Leicester City Hall the river was ‘brown and muddy’ and there ‘didn’t seem to be any difference’ between the colour of the water, and the colour of the path.
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She said it ‘wasn’t clear’ afterwards that the path didn’t continue and became water, adding: ‘When you got into the water, that is when you realised It was not a continuous path.
‘I also tried to get into the water, but when I felt the current was too strong I got out. I started shouting for help and when I was shouting for help, Nicole was being taken by the current.
‘I was trying to tell people there was a child in the water, but they could see Nicole because she was visible, and they thought she was the only one in the water.’
Ms Maruziva then called Xielo’s father, who arrived ‘sprinting’ onto the scene. She added: ‘He was shouting, “Where’s Xielo?”. I showed him where we last had a vision of him, and he jumped in the water and he was taken by the current.’
She said she had ‘no concerns’ about Xielo walking on his own, telling the hearing: ‘He was walking perfectly fine. He would jog for a few minutes and you’d lift him up.’
Prof Mason heard the boy would spend the week with his mother, Kayela Smith, and weekends at his father’s address.
In bodycam footage from a police officer who arrived on the scene shortly after Xielo vanished, one of his aunts could be heard to say, ‘The next thing… I think he just slipped.’
After Xielo fell into the river, Leicestershire Police launched what would become one of its most complex operations, including almost 200 officers, specialist divers, drones, helicopters, and sonar equipment.
Underwater search experts from Specialist Group International, the organisation that searched for Nicola Bulley after she disappeared while walking her dog along the River Wyre in Lancashire in 2023, were also brought in at the request of Xielo’s family.
The search for Xielo was scaled back on March 21, with his body found on June 7.
Detective Inspector Kevin Hames, of Leicestershire Police told the jury the area was a designated flood plain – but added the public wouldn’t have been aware unless they saw warnings on the Environment Agency website, and that the extent of the flooding ‘wasn’t apparent’ until visitors who accessed the area along a footpath reached the river.
He said: ‘On the body-worn video the water level is level with the path. There is no demarcation between the path ending and where the water rises to. It could distort your viewpoint if you haven’t been there before.
‘I was quite shocked by the amount of water in that location.’
Asked by Prof Mason, ‘Irrespective of the weather, in the absence of any signage or warnings, would you expect a lay person to be aware of those risks?’, he replied: ‘No.’
Det Insp Hames told the inquest police had recovered CCTV showing Xielo being held by his aunts before he was ‘put down and appeared to run off’.
The officer said other footage showed the youngster running ahead, then Nicole and Memory Maruziva catching up with him to allow a cyclist and dog walker to pass.
Pathologist Dr Frances Hollingbury told the hearing the cause of Xielo’s death was the ‘effects of immersion’. She added: ‘It would have been an extremely short period of time, if any at all, before Xielo was unconscious.’
Before the evidence began, Xielo’s parents gave jurors a ‘pen portrait’ of him. Ms Smith said he was a ‘cheeky, friendly, smart, caring and independent little boy’, adding: ‘He was deeply loved, and gave us a lifetime of love, and memories that we will hold forever.’
In his tribute, Mr Maruziva said his son was ‘happy’, ‘joyful’ and ‘fearless’, adding: ‘I think about what he would have been when he got older, and what he would have achieved in life.’
The inquest, which is expected to last five days, continues.
