Parents do it all the time: Lift their pint-size toddler on to a ledge or railing to get a better view so they don’t miss out.
That was the tragic case when Salvatore ‘Sam’ Anello lifted his precious 18-month-old granddaughter on the Freedom of the Seas cruise ship, holding her up to the glass railings for 34 seconds before she suddenly tumbled through an opening and fell 150ft on to the concrete Pan American Pier 2 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
The family of Chloe Wiegand has been torn apart since the 2019 accident, with Anello, 57, pictured by the Daily Mail for the first time since his conviction for negligent homicide, living his life as best he can.
Anello, a senior IT consultant for St Joseph County in South Bend, Indiana, remains close to Chloe’s parents, Alan Wiegand and Kimberly Schultz, who have since gotten divorced following the toddler’s tragic death.
The couple had been fighting against Royal Caribbean since the tragedy, claiming there should have been more in place to prevent Chloe’s fatal fall.
At the time of his conviction Anello’s lawyers stated he took the plea in order to avoid a lengthy criminal case, with the grandfather himself hoping to ‘end the nightmare for his family.’
He avoided jail time when he was sentenced to three years probation in a Puerto Rican court and allowed to return to the mainland US.
Exclusive Daily Mail photos show the grandfather leaving work last Friday in South Bend, with one detail highlighting his dedication to the family.
Salvatore ‘Sam’ Anello, 57, was seen breaking cover in South Bend, Indiana, for the first time since he was charged with negligent homicide and sentenced to three years’ probation for his granddaughter’s 2019 death
Exclusive Daily Mail photos show Anello, a senior IT consultant for St Joseph County, leaving his workplace last Friday
Anello (left) and his step-granddaughter (right) were all smiles when they started the cruise on board the Freedom of the Seas. But days later he accidentally dropped her from a window on the ship
He was seen getting into his silver Toyota Aygo, which proudly displays a sticker for the Motor City Gamblers hockey club with the name ‘Amm’ – in support of Schultz’s eldest son Wyatt Amm.
Anello has been quietly serving out his probation at his home in Niles, Michigan, continuing to work his job as an IT consultant in nearby South Bend.
Anello did not respond to the Daily Mail’s requests for comment.
At the time of Chloe’s death, he addressed the tragedy in a public statement: ‘I was placed in charge of keeping my beautiful granddaughter safe and I failed.
‘It will always be a constant nightmare every day and every night for the rest of my life. I took a plea deal today to try to help end part of this nightmare for my family, if possible.
‘The support they continue to give me has been beyond overwhelming and I can’t tell you how grateful I am for them.’
Disaster struck when Wiegand and Schultz were about to embark on a seven-night Caribbean cruise with Chloe’s older brother, Wiegand’s parents, and Anello and his wife, Patti.
Anello (pictured), who served his probation sentence at home, is now living life as best he can, despite the tragedy tearing the family apart
Dressed semi casually in khaki pants, sneakers and a winter jacket, Anello was seen loading the trunk of his silver Toyota Aygo
A sticker for the Motor City Gamblers hockey club, with the name ‘Amm’ was visible on Anello’s car – a nod to stepdaughter Kimberly Schultz’s eldest son, Wyatt Amm
Anello, Schultz’s stepfather, claimed he didn’t realize the window in the children’s play area on the Freedom of the Seas was open.
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Marriage drama for lawyer mom whose stepdad dropped daughter, 2, to death off cruise ship
In a haunting deposition, Schultz, 42, told police on board the ship that she screamed at Anello, ‘you killed Chloe,’ before he responded, ‘I know.’
The pictures of Anello come after the Daily Mail revealed that Schultz, a lawyer, filed for divorce from Wiegand this year – five days after the fourth anniversary of their daughter’s death.
The split was finalized by the St Joseph Circuit Court in Indiana last September, the Daily Mail can reveal.
Court documents obtained by the Daily Mail showed she claimed the marriage was ‘irretrievably broken.’ The couple agreed to share custody of their five-year-old daughter, Ella.
Schultz declined to comment on the marriage breakdown when approached at her home in Granger, Indiana, just outside South Bend.
‘I’m not comfortable speaking about what’s happened in our lives,’ she told the Daily Mail.
Exactly what caused the couple to split is unclear, but it appeared to be an amicable separation.
Court records showed Kimberly asked for Chloe’s bench, her piggy bank and the contents, and a sketch of the toddler from their shared dining room.
Chloe Wiegand (pictured) was 18 months old when she plummeted to her death from Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas cruise ship after her grandfather held her up to an open window in 2019 in San Juan
Anello said he did not know the window (pictured) in the children’s play area was open and that he lifted Chloe up to it so she could knock on the glass
Exclusive Daily Mail photos show Schultz walking into her office building for her job as a federal defense attorney in South Bend last Thursday
Wiegand requested his tools, guns, gun safe and various other household items as well as his Buick Enclave SUV.
Schultz bought out Wiegand’s share of the 3,000-sq-ft, four-bedroom, three-bathroom family home for $277,472, two weeks after the divorce was finalized.
He used some of the money to buy a similarly sized house just three miles away in the same town for $352,500 in November 2024.
The former couple gave tearful public interviews and sued Royal Caribbean within days of Chole’s death, arguing poorly designed windows and a lack of warning notices were to blame.
Their lawyers claimed the cruise giant ‘chose to ignore’ the ‘clear, known’ dangers posed by their windows and instead chose to defend the case by blaming Anello and destroying CCTV evidence, claims which the operator denied.
Alan Wiegand (left) and Kimberly Schultz (right) presented a strong united front after their daughter’s tragic death, but their marriage has since collapsed
US District Judge Donald Graham ultimately sided with Royal Caribbean in July 2021, agreeing that Chloe’s death was solely the result of Anello’s ‘unforeseeable’ behavior.
He ruled Anello would only have had to rely on his basic senses to conclude from the noise, light and wind that the window was ajar.
But the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals gave the case new life two years later, just one day before Schultz filed for divorce.
‘When all the evidence is viewed in a light most favorable to the Wiegands, the Wiegands offered enough evidence to survive summary judgment,’ the court ruled, without making any finding on the merits of the case.
The case was sent back to the Florida Southern District Court until the couple, amid their divorce, abruptly withdrew it on December 21, 2023.
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