Jamal Morton’s two-year-old daughter wandered into the backyard alone, and what happened next ended in her death

A two-year-old girl has died after a drowning incident at the Georgia home of her father, social media personality Jamal Morton. The toddler, named Rose, wandered into the backyard and entered the family’s swimming pool on her own. As detailed by VT, the incident occurred on Sunday in Hoschton, Georgia.

Morton, known online to millions of followers as J’Amore or Mr Jay, shared the news of his daughter’s death on Facebook. In the post, he wrote that Rose was the best daughter a father could ask for and said he hoped heaven was real so she would not be alone. He closed the message by telling her that daddy loves her forever.

The coroner’s office has confirmed the toddler’s death, though the exact cause has not yet been determined. The 33-year-old father of six said he would be stepping away from social media to grieve, and his management team later clarified that he is not the person behind posts that have continued to appear on his accounts since the announcement.

Drowning remains a constant risk for families even when safety measures seem to be in place

The team stated that J’Amore’s platforms are currently being managed by his staff while he is not online, posting content, or responding to messages. They added that management is keeping his pages running so he and his family can grieve privately, and they asked for understanding and respect for the family’s privacy during this time.

Morton launched his TikTok account in 2022 and built a large following through comedy sketches centered on family life, with his children, including Rose, frequent participants. Since the news broke, a video from April 2025 has resurfaced showing the toddler taking some of her first steps toward her father near the edge of the family’s unfenced pool.

Drowning is the leading cause of death for children between the ages of one and four in the United States, with most incidents in that age group occurring in residential swimming pools, according to data from the CDC. The risk increases sharply when children gain unsupervised access to water, which a 3-year-old’s drowning death in another part of Georgia also illustrated earlier this month, even when equipment intended to prevent it is in use.

Other influencers have spoken about water safety following their own losses. Emilie Kiser, who lost her three-year-old son Trigg in May 2025 after he fell into a pool in Arizona, has used her platform to push for preventative steps. During an appearance on the On Purpose podcast, she said losing a child shows in the scariest way possible how quickly life can be taken away.

Kiser has urged parents to install pool fences, keep door alarms functional, and make sure those alarms have updated batteries. She said she hopes anyone who sees her message will install a pool fence, check their door alarms, update the batteries, and watch their children closely around water.

Safety experts say a four-sided isolation fence, which separates the pool from the house and the rest of the yard, is significantly more effective than three-sided fencing that only encloses the property line, reducing a child’s drowning risk by as much as 83 percent. Cases involving fatal neglect of young children, such as one father’s sentencing over his daughter’s death, have similarly underscored how quickly preventable tragedies can turn fatal.

Swimming lessons can also help reduce risk, but experts say they should always be paired with physical barriers and constant supervision around any body of water. The coroner’s office has not yet released the official cause of Rose’s death.