She came to Florida for a college track meet. In a tragic twist of events, her body is being returned to her Midwest home for her funeral.
The 22-year-old died at the Summer Bay Resort in Clermont during a swim with teammates in the facility’s 64-acre private lake.
According to a newspaper report, the young woman attended Central State University in Ohio, but was originally from Chicago.
The men’s and women’s track teams were staying at Summer Bay following a dual meet.
Divers found the athlete’s body approximately 15 feet from shore. She was wearing her bathing suit and goggles.
Her mother wonders how her daughter could have disappeared while swimming with 30 athletes in a crowded lake.
It’s understandable that a parent in that position would wonder how such a tragedy could take place and if the hotel had done all it could do to keep its guests safe while making use of its facilities.
The mother received a phone call from a crying track team coach to tell her about her missing daughter.
An autopsy report concluded that the young woman drowned.
According to the newspaper article, Summer Bay employees were told not to discuss the drowning with reporters.
The woman was first reported missing to the sheriff’s office around nine p.m., but at that point witnesses hadn’t seen her for an hour and a half.
Ironically, she had been studying criminal justice in college, hoping someday to be a police officer.
We wish her family peace as they come to terms with their loss.