Toddler Drowns at Day Care : Death: Husband of center’s operator had propped open fence’s gate while repairing pool.

YORBA LINDA — A 20-month-old Placentia girl drowned at a day-care center Friday after the operator’s husband propped open a gate to the swimming pool where he had been making repairs, police said.

Megan Elizabeth Cook was discovered floating unconscious about 2:15 p.m. by the owner of the day-care center in the 5300 block of Via Vicente, coroner’s officials said. The girl may have been in the water for up to five minutes before she was found, a coroner’s official said.

Paramedics rushed her to Placentia Linda Community Hospital, where she died about 3:20 p.m., deputy coroner Rick McAnally said.

Police said Megan was in the family room of the house watching a video with other children when the owner of the day-care center, Laura Gast, 35, and her husband, who was not identified, began working on the pool. After stopping work, Gast and her husband walked to the front of the house, police said.

Laura Gast walked into the family room and did not see Megan, Police Sgt. Gary Drlik said. She noticed that the sliding door was open, and then saw Megan floating in the swimming pool, police said.

The pool is surrounded by a wrought-iron fence, but Gast’s husband propped the gate open a short time earlier with a flower pot while he worked on a problem with the pool, police said.

“It appears that while the gate was propped open, Cook opened a sliding door from the residence and walked out through the open gate,” McAnally said. “How she got into the pool we’ll never know, whether she fell in or what,” he said.

Laura Gast and her husband could not be reached for comment Friday. Police said the day-care center is licensed by the state.

Coroner’s officials said an autopsy was scheduled for today to determine the cause of death, McAnally said.

Brea police, who patrol Yorba Linda, said the death appears accidental, but they and the state Department of Social Services were continuing an investigation.

Megan Cook was at least the 11th child to drown in Orange County so far this year, coroner’s records indicate. Statewide and in Orange County, drownings are the leading cause of death for children 4 years old and younger, according to a county study released this spring.