Man To Plead Guilty In Granddaughter’s Cruise Ship Death

I'm gonna be the first to tell you I am ALWAYS the most cynical in these situations.  When a spouse goes missing or dies in mysterious circumstances, I always suspect the other spouse.

Same with missing (or worse) children, I ALWAYS suspect parents/guardians of foul play.

And unfortunately, I'm usually right.

This case is different though.  Do you remember Salvatore Anello?  He's the grandfather who was playing with his granddaughter when she fell to her death from a cruise ship.

He was on vacation with his family last July aboard Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas when he dropped Chloe out of a window of the ship while it was docked in San Juan.

Surveillance video, obtained by CBS News, showed the moments before Chloe fell from the window. She is seen running over to a bank of windows and Anello is following her. He leans over a railing to look out and then reaches down, picks Chloe up, and holds her over the railing. She then falls 150 feet.

"At the moment the accident happened, it was as if this wall of protective glass disappeared," Anello said in his statement. "I was in complete disbelief ... I wasn't drinking and I wasn't dangling her out of a window. I just wanted to knock on the glass with her as we did together so many times before ... I was placed in charge of keeping my beautiful granddaughter safe and I failed."

From the start, I never suspected him of anything but being the second victim in a horrible accident.  He was set to stand trial in Puerto Rico for negligent homicide.  He had pled, "Not Guilty."

He's now changed his plea-not because he's recanting his story, rather to "end this nightmare for my family."  Anello has been offered a deal that spares him from going to jail and from having to admit to the facts of the case as alleged by prosecutors.

Anello is expected to get probation and serve it in Indiana.

Still, there can never be a happy ending to this story.