HOUSTON -- A toddler drowned in a mud puddle in southwest Houston on Sunday, KPRC Local 2 reported.

Houston police said Joseph Enriquez, 2, and his parents attended a barbecue lunch at a trucking company on Cook Road near Beechnut Street at about 3 p.m.

Investigators said one of the wives of the company's mechanics was watching Joseph and two girls.

Joseph wandered away for about 20 minutes, detectives said. The parents thought the boy wandered toward the street, but they found him face-down in about 5 ½ inches of stagnant water in the back of the truck yard, officials said.

The ground was gravel with a sloped embankment and Joseph apparently lost his footing, investigators said.

Joseph was taken to a nearby fire station in a private vehicle and paramedics tried to resuscitate him. He was then rushed him to Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital, where he died.

"It should be a wake-up call for all parents that at any given moment in time, if you're not aware, especially toddlers, of where your child is at all times, this is the kind of thing that happens," Det. Fil Waters said.

The Harris County Medical Examiner's Office will conduct an autopsy to determine how long he was in the water.