9 year old Punta Gorda girl dead in boating accident

A tragic accident in the waters off Toledo has resulted in the death of a nine year old girl. Lilia Ramirez of Punta Gorda was one of two passengers in a fifteen-foot skiff captained by her twenty-two year old brother, Oscar Lira. Lira and Ramirez, accompanied by the captain’s stepfather, were heading out to do some fishing on Tuesday morning when around eleven thirty the little girl apparently stood up in the boat. At the same time a large wave came up and when the skiff slammed into it she was thrown overboard. Lilia apparently was run over by the forty horsepower engine as when they recovered her body it displayed cuts from the propeller to her hip and head. A postmortem revealed that she died of a skull fracture.