The death of a baby boy who drowned in a hot tub in a family friend’s garden was a “tragic accident”, an inquest has heard. Jetson Maffia-Kerbey, believed to be the baby cousin of So Solid Crew member Lisa Maffia, was three months shy of his second birthday when he died on June 13, 2022.
An inquest into his death concluded by Katrina Hepburn, area coroner for central and south east Kent, found Jetson’s cause of death was drowning and concluded his death was an accident. The inquest at Maidstone County Hall heard on the day of Jetson’s death, his father Nigel Kerbey took him to spend the day with family friend Graham Morgan and his three-year-old daughter at their home not far from where they lived in Folkestone.
The two fathers took their children to an event in the village where the children went on fairground rides and ate ice cream. They returned home at around 3pm where they met Jetson’s mother, Crystal Maffia, and Brook Jordan, Mr Morgan’s partner.
The children played together while Miss Jordan’s teenage daughter used the hot tub built into the decking in their garden. Mr Kerbey and Mr Morgan later entered the hot tub, allowing the two children to join them for around 20 minutes.
The two fathers then got out of the hot tub, bringing the children with them, but the lid of the hot tub was not replaced. At around 5pm the two sets of parents were sat in the garden, keeping an eye on the children while they played with toys on the decking.
The parents noted that the children had “gone quiet”, so Mr Morgan stood up to look over the decking to see his daughter in the hot tub with Jetson face down in the water. He quickly rescued Jetson from the water and performed CPR while an ambulance was called.
An off-duty police officer who lived nearby heard the commotion and attended the scene, taking over CPR. Paramedics arrived just after 5pm and they took over resuscitation attempts before taking Jetson to hospital at around 5.45pm.
Efforts resumed at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, Kent, however, doctors realised any further attempts would be futile and Jetson’s time of death was recorded as 6.13pm. Concluding, Miss Hepburn said: “A Kent Police multi-agency strategy meeting was held on June 15 and concluded Jetson most likely entered the hot tub of his own free will, likely to retrieve a toy spade, and drowned as a result.
“Any question of the wilful neglect of Jetson has been investigated and there is insufficient evidence of any act that would amount to a criminal offence. There was a period of between 30 seconds and five minutes where Jetson entered the hot tub.
“A toxicology report found there were no drugs in Jetson’s system, and the post-mortem report gave a cause of death of 1A drowning. Nothing identified any natural causes of the death, there were no signs of trauma, so it is reasonable to take the view that Jetson died because of drowning and it seems to have been purely accidental.
“The children entered the water and although it was a very short period of time this resulted in the tragic conclusion of Jetson sadly drowning. I therefore conclude Jetson’s death was an accident.”
