Homer Glen Drowning Victim, 3, Found Way to Unlock Front Door

Written by Patch Editor Ann Piasecki

Updated 4:40 p.m.

Nathan Kackert, 3, who drowned July 7 in Homer Glen, managed to unlock the front door at his grandparents' home while everyone was asleep. 

Don Kackert, Nathan's grandfather, said Nathan together with his parents and 7-month-old brother Ryan, were visiting for the Fourth of July holiday weekend. Tragedy struck when the child wandered from home and drown in a next door neighbor's in-ground swimming pool at 13311 W. Chicago-Bloomington Road. The family is enduring criticism over the boy's unfortunate death.

"The truth is that Nathan found a way to unlock the front door while everyone was asleep, wander next door and fell into an in ground pool with an open gate. 

"Hindsight vision is always 20/20 and all of us will be haunted by ‘what ifs’ for the rest of our lives. Sometimes circumstances line up in ways that present tragic results. Now we only have fond memories of a sweet, young boy with no future," said the child's grieving grandfather.

Nathan is the son of U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Shaun and Linda Kackert. The boy's 27-year-old father is scheduled for deployment to Afghanistan early next year.

He is currently on leave from Fort Carson near Colorado Springs. 

The child's grandfather told Patch that while on leave, his son's family came home for the holiday to visit family on both sides before his deployment.

Will County Deputy Sheriff Ken Kaupas said, the neighbor had used the pool the night before, and while the pool was gated, the gate may have been left open. The child was pronounced dead at 11:55 a.m. July 7 at Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox.  

The child's father is a graduate of Lockport High School. He and his two brothers, Chris and Eric, each joined the military and served overseas. 

Shaun chose to make the Army his career, his father said. After his first deployment to Iraq, he became a recruiter in the Downers Grove station. He transferred back into the Infantry and was sent to Fort Carson, Colo.

"He saw a lot of the horrors of war, lost friends and fellow soldiers over there, but nothing compared to the loss of his first born. He and his wife Linda had two sons, Nathan 3 1/2, and Ryan, 7 months."  

Speaking of the tragic day, Don said his wife, Crystal, noticed that Nathan was missing about 10 a.m. on Sunday. Everyone panicked. Pointing to the trail across the street, Don said, "I went down the road there, looking for him."

The next door neighbor found the child in the in-ground pool about11 a.m. The emergency room staff at Silver Cross Hospital told the family that the child had been in the water for about an hour. 

Through her tears, the child's grandmother said, "he was so active. You had to watch him all the time. ...and we did watch him all the time." 

Don said Nathan was such a "smart little guy." 

While Nathan's parents were out making funeral arrangements, Crystal said, "You just go over and over every scenario—the what ifs."

Declining to identify the neighbors whose pool Nathan drowned in, Don pointed to the rod iron gate. It has an electric lock on the gate. The pool has a gate too.

Ironically, both gates appear to have been accidentally left unlocked. The neighbors are devastated, he said. 

"We're just trying to get through this," Don said.

Nathan's grandfather said, "You read the stories about kids getting abducted or drowning in the pool. And you feel sorry. You've got to be really careful." 

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