A Florida mother is facing multiple attempted murder charges after authorities say she tried to drown herself and her three young children in a community pool while livestreaming on Instagram.
Her Last Goodbye
Sherri Ciarocco-Tosto, of Lodi, enjoys the Rochelle Park Swim Club as the temperature exceeded 90 degrees, Tuesday, July 8, 2025. You do not need to be a resident of Rochelle Park to join the club. Membership starts at $525, depending on age and the pool is open through September 1st, starting at 11AM each day and closes at 7 or 8pm depending on the day.
Prosecutors allege that 24-year-old Shaniece Willingham of Valrico tied herself to her children — ages 3, 2, and just 8 months — before pushing them all into the deep end of a pool early Wednesday morning. According to court filings, she told viewers during the livestream that she could no longer cope with life and would not leave her children behind. “This was her ‘last goodbye,’” prosecutors wrote in a motion for pretrial detention. “She said she loved her kids so much, but she could not leave them because no one could take care of them, and they would be safe with God.”
Family Members Saved The Children
An empty lifeguard chair at the Recreation Park pool in east Asheville on Thursday, July 29, 2021.
The chilling broadcast reportedly prompted relatives to rush to the pool on Sacramento Street, where Willingham had said she was. Hillsborough County sheriff’s deputies were called around 1:30 a.m. Family members managed to pull Willingham and her children from the water before first responders arrived. None of the children — nor Willingham herself — knew how to swim.
An Argument With Her Husband Started Everything
An empty lifeguard stand overlooks the empty Northeast Community Center Pool in Oklahoma City, Okla. on Tuesday, June 15, 2021, while it is shut down due to a lifeguard shortage. Closed Pools
Investigators say that things kicked off after an argument between Willingham and her mother, followed by her children’s father refusing to pick them up. Upset and distraught, Willingham loaded her three children into a wagon and walked them to the community pool. Along the way, she FaceTimed her mother, reportedly telling her she loved her and turning the camera to show she was at the pool.
Willingham Was Open About Her Desire To Die
A life-saving throw ring hangs on the wall near the 24-inch deep pool at Bar Anticipation in Lake Como.
Authorities allege she then tied herself and the children together using rope attached to a poolside life ring — a device intended to prevent drownings. Court records say she deliberately pulled them all into the water, into a section six feet deep. In an interview with investigators afterward, Willingham allegedly admitted that she intended to end her life and take her children with her.
A Deliberate Act of Cruelty
Police lights flash as law enforcement officers search for a fleeing suspect in Springfield Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2023.
Sheriff Chad Chronister condemned the act in stark terms: “The fear and betrayal these innocent children must have felt, at the hands of the one person meant to love, care for, and protect them, is unimaginable. This was not a cry for help, it was a deliberate act of cruelty. There is no excuse, no justification. These children were failed by their own mother, and it is only by the quick actions of their family that they are alive today.” Willingham was ordered held without bond during her first court appearance Thursday. A pretrial detention hearing is scheduled for September 29.
