Jamal Morton said his 2-year-old daughter, Sadé Rose, drowned in a swimming pool in Georgia. The parenting influencer said he and his family now have to move away from the house, while the Hall County Sheriff’s Office said the death appears accidental.
Morton, 33, wrote on a GoFundMe page that Sadé Rose “thought she was a big girl and could swim all by herself” and that “She walked out of the house and got into the pool, where she drowned.” He also wrote, “Please send us home,” and said he did not think he would be able to work anytime soon.
Hoschton response
The Hall County Sheriff’s Office said deputies responded to a home in Hoschton on Sunday and reported a death at the residence. On Thursday, the office told News that the death appeared to be accidental in nature.
Morton shared the first public video about Sadé Rose with his 1.1 million TikTok followers on Tuesday. The video showed her smiling and leaning over a Peppa Pig-themed cake to blow out the candles on her second birthday, with a text overlay that read “RIP.”
Morton later said he would be taking a break from posting. His TikTok video, Instagram announcement and GoFundMe campaign were later deleted, while a Facebook post with the announcement remained up.
Jamal Morton platforms
On Wednesday, Morton’s management team said on Facebook that he would no longer be posting or responding to messages. It said it would take over his platforms while he and his family grieved the loss of their baby girl.
That response matters to his audience because Morton makes comedy skits and other family-themed content for millions of viewers across TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. The public updates now shift to his management team, while Morton says the home itself is no longer somewhere he and his family can stay.
His account did not just note the death; it described the sequence Morton says led to it, from a child leaving the house to entering the pool. The sheriff’s office account and Morton’s account line up on the fatality, but they differ in detail only by what each side has put on the record so far.
What remains front and center is the practical aftermath: Morton says the family must move away, his team has taken over posting, and the public has been left with one unresolved circumstance at the pool and house that day.
