A 4-year-old girl is found dead next to a canal after disappearing from the house her family rented in Florida

() — A 4-year-old girl, who ran away from the Florida rental home where her family was staying, was found dead in a waterside canal, the sheriff’s office announced Friday.

Sheriff’s deputies had been searching for Evelyn K. Geer for several hours with bloodhounds and aviation assistance early Friday morning, the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post.

The search began after Evelyn’s mother found the front door of the Port Charlotte home unlocked and called 911.

“She’s screaming, saying her 4-year-old daughter is missing. She found her front door wide open,” the dispatcher says in audio of the 911 call released by the sheriff’s office and obtained by affiliate WINK. from . “This can’t be happening,” the mother is heard saying on the call.

The girl had disappeared wearing only a diaper, the sheriff’s office said.

The family was staying in a VRBO rental home after being displaced from their home by Hurricane Ian in September, affiliate WINK reported. Evelyn had autism, WINK reported, and her family used to have a deadbolt on the door, but the rental house did not.

“We are heartbroken to confirm that the body of 4-year-old Evelyn K. Geer (…) has been discovered at the water’s edge by the canal behind the VRBO where the family was staying,” announced the sheriff’s office first thing Friday morning.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission found the girl’s body while searching by boat, the update said.

“Please keep the family in your prayers as they go through this excruciating time,” the sheriff’s office added.

Evelyn’s grandmother, Tina Kolman, launched a GoFundMe to raise money for the girl’s funeral expenses.

“Today we have lost our most precious shining star and it is with the heaviest of hearts that I create this account,” Kolman wrote on the GoFundMe. “Forgive me as I am really speechless.”