San Diego couple sues Hyatt after toddler's 9-story fall at Mexico resort

Two years ago, on Oct. 11, 2021, the Carter family was on vacation at a resort in Mexico, when they experienced an unthinkable tragedy.

“No parent should go through that,” Anastasia Duboshina said. “No parent should bury a child.”

Duboshina and her husband James Carter took their 1-year-old son Nico Carter to Hyatt Ziva Puerto Vallarta in Mexico. The Carmel Valley family would travel often and loved exploring the world together.

“He was my everything,” Duboshina said. ”He was my best friend, the sweetest child.”

Duboshina and Carter told NBC 7 they had taken a trip to a Hyatt property in Florida a few months prior.

“We had such a good experience at a Hyatt hotel in Miami,” Carter said. “That played a part in our reasoning to book the Hyatt again because we felt safe.”

Safety was their top priority, according to Duboshina.

“We chose Hyatt specifically for their safety and because they were a child-friendly resort, and that’s exactly what we wanted to do, take our boy in a safe place with us and just enjoy the beach and have fun with him there,” Duboshina added.

Then, on the morning of their third day, their lives changed forever.

“Nico and I were in the elevator bay area kind of near our room and there’s a balcony area where you can look out toward the ocean,” Carter said. “We’re on the ninth floor, and me and him were just talking, we’re looking out at the ocean and next thing you know he just disappeared.”

Carter continued as he and Duboshina fought off tears. “He fell through an opening where there was a missing piece of safety glass on the balcony. I watched my son fall nine stories to his death.”

Duboshina told NBC 7 she was in the room packing a backpack to head down for breakfast while James and Nico were out in the hall. She had just taken a few steps outside to tell them she was ready when it happened.

“I heard that scream. I’ve never heard anything like that before by my husband,” she said. “My heart dropped, I knew something terrible happened.”

Now, the couple is determined to prevent another family from ever having to experience something like this again.

“They went down there as a family of three and came back, you know, just them,” Robert Francavilla, a trial attorney and partner at CaseyGerry, said.

Francavilla is representing Carter and Duboshina in a federal lawsuit filed on Oct. 5, 2023, against Hyatt Hotels Corporation, Playa Hotels and Resorts and others.

“In what world can a hotel assign somebody to a ninth floor that has a freefall death-drop attached to it?” Francavilla added.

The lawsuit claims wrongful death, and Francavilla is prepared to take it before a jury.

“We were supposed to come back from the trip and celebrate his second birthday, but we had to plan a funeral instead,” Duboshina said. “Life’s been a nightmare since.”

NBC 7 reached out to the Hyatt Hotels Corporation and Playa Hotels and Resorts, but did not hear back.

This is a developing story.