9-Year-Old Disappeared in Pool in a ‘Split Second’ and Drowned After Days of Swimming Lessons (Exclusive)

• Ava McCourt, 9, died after she drowned in a busy Ohio swimming pool
• Jaimee Sergent tells PEOPLE that her niece “lit up a room without even blinking”
• The coroner’s office tells PEOPLE that the case remains open and under investigation

A 9-year-old girl died after she drowned in an Ohio swimming pool, according to her family.

The girl — identified by family members and the Seneca County Coroner’s Office as Ava McCourt — died on June 28 after being found in a pool in Tiffin.

Ava’s aunt, Jaimee Sergent, who was not there that day, tells PEOPLE that the girl had just started having swimming lessons with her family days earlier. “Ava was always eager to learn,” Sergent says.

On the day Ava died, Sergent says there were about 20 people at the pool and that Ava was being supervised by family and several bystanders.

But in a “split second,” Ava — who had been making her way along the edge of the pool — was gone, according to Sergent, who says “panic immediately set in.”

According to WTVG, an unidentified woman who said she had been teaching Ava to swim told local police that when she noticed that McCourt was missing, people around the pool began to search for her.

Sergent tells PEOPLE that a grandma visiting the pool with her 13-year-old grandson was the one who spotted Ava near the bottom of the water. Both the teen and Ava’s stepmom jumped in the pool to retrieve her.

Sergent says that an off-duty EMT just happened to be there and “immediately started CPR” until EMS arrived and took over.

Authorities “did everything within their power” to bring Ava back, according to her aunt, who says the family takes solace “in the fact that God was there to hold her hand and take her home.”

“Now she’s dancing with the lord in the stars,” she adds.

The Seneca County Coroner’s Office tells PEOPLE her body was sent for autopsy and a final pathology report is pending at this time. The Seneca County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

Her aunt tells PEOPLE she’s hoping to raise awareness to “prevent another family from this pain” and that she’s also launched a GoFundMe for Ava’s family.

“She was our whole world,” Sergent says. “Lit up a room without even blinking.”

“My little niece was the ray of sunshine sneaking through a thunderstorm. She could always find a way to make everyone giggle,” she adds. “She was loved and cherished by so many.”