MA - Drowned woman's body in public pool for days

[Melanie]

Such a fail on all possible levels. It NEVER should have happened and all responsible (are you kidding me??????) for not doing their job should be held accountable. Disturbing beyond words and comprehension. I have such anger knowing that such ignorance and stupidity, for days (!) occured here.

One of the very few times I will ever state, "Family, get a lawyer".

Disgusted... Sweet Mary....

I agree - this is wrong on so many levels

 

[wfgodot]

Overhead shot of the pool (Fox News)

 

[Nova]

Um...yah. I hate public pools - just awful. DH is from the UK where pools are few and far between (at least in the Midlands).

This just gives me nightmares! Poor woman! Just how crowded/cloudy was this pool (ie, see below)....

That is truly terrifying!

 

[mrsu]

Something definitely seems odd about this. I find this very hard to believe. You're telling me a nobody noticed a very dark African American woman floating in a pool with a white bottom, even if it was a little cloudy? I don't buy that for a minute. Very bizarre.

 

[SuziQ]

This poor woman, the kids who found her and patrons of the pool. Did the kids see her or did she float up on them horror movie style? I can't imagine how terrifying it was for them.

My kids were on swim teams, my DD was a lifeguard for years. Two of the pools she worked at were older and had squared off corners and straight walls like this one. I know that creates a visual refraction and bending of light that creates literal blind spots. That was the reason a couple of decades ago that lifeguards didn't find a deceased child until they searched for an hour. A cloudy pool should always be closed. If you can't see the drain it is not safe.

 

[wfgodot]

This poor woman, the kids who found her and patrons of the pool. Did the kids see her or did she float up on them horror movie style? I can't imagine how terrifying it was for them.

from LadyL's link above:

Joseph was found floating in the pool Tuesday at 10 p.m. by a group of teenagers who jumped the locked fence to get into the pool area after it was closed.

So at least that spared dozens the trauma of having been in the pool when the body broke the surface.
Also may cause teens to reconsider at least briefly vaulting over fences to avoid fee-paying after hours.

That poor woman. Jeesh.

http://www.heraldnews.com/news/x186...as-dead-in-Fall-River-pool-for-2-days?photo=3

 

[Kat]

I'm interested in her autopsy. Of course it will say she drowned but I want to know if there was a factor that precipitated her drowning (Anurysm...etc.) because the child said she went down but never came back up.

This is just horrible. I feel so bad for her family.

 

[Nova]

Something definitely seems odd about this. I find this very hard to believe. You're telling me a nobody noticed a very dark African American woman floating in a pool with a white bottom, even if it was a little cloudy? I don't buy that for a minute. Very bizarre.

But what's the alternative? They kept her body hidden in an aquarium somewhere and then put it back in the pool?

I agree the circumstances are very odd, but all the alternatives seem even odder.

 

[Truthful Lies]

I just wanted to throw in my two cents...I was a county lifeguard in South Florida for 4 years. As much as it pains me to say so, I can easily see how this could have occurred (talking about not being able to see through water...NO excuse for the guard having been told - they should have cleared the pool immediately and gone in for a bottom sweep)....especially with Red Cross certification. I say that because they aren't held to higher standards, like ELLIS (meaning, ELLIS lifeguards are audited - secretly videotaped at unknown times and random "emergencies", have to do weekly inservice, can't even cross legs, etc. I don't ever see this happening at an ELLIS-certified facility) In fact, it's pretty much gauranteed that if there's a heavy swim load, you won't be able to see the bottom

Now, on to why the water was so cloudy - and please do not take offense...many people with ethnic hair use heavy oils that really do cloud the water tremendously - and everyone should use sunscreen. Many don't shower off before entering.

I can remember many, many days when all the guards would join arms and do "foot sweeps" on the bottom, looking for bodies *sorry to be graphic*. The deepest section was 5 feet! I couldn't see the bottom looking directly above and neither could other guards. **I EXPECTED to be doing body sweeps on busy days....it was that common!**

There is absolutely NO excuse for this...none. If a guard can't see the bottom, it's their duty to check or to clear the pool until the water situation is resolved. Chlorine and chemicals can sometimes not keep up, even with incredibly advanced systems.

Now, not trying to bash the RC, but their standards are incredibly lax. And for my dear WSers, please check the certification of the facility....I don't take kids to RC pools, ever (no matter that I'm right there...I've watched a child go under while the mother was two feet away, just not looking! By the time I got to the child, the mother turned around and chastised me. I kicked them out!)

JMO.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Blondie in Spokane]

Wow Truthful Lies....thanks for the insight...I had no idea about RC pools. Glad you shared the info.

 

[Nova]

Wow Truthful Lies....thanks for the insight...I had no idea about RC pools. Glad you shared the info.

I agree. Very valuable info.

I was a lifeguard in South Florida, too: at the Y back in the 60s. But segregation had just ended and few African Americans were using the newly integrated pools.

And I should qualify the following by saying I am Caucasian, but I don't see anything offensive in what you wrote. People with different types of hair use different products.

And not rinsing off before entering a pool isn't specific to any group.

But I agree there is no excuse for the lifeguard ignoring the 9-year-old's warning. Kids that age are usually past the "imaginary friend" stage.

And there's no excuse for a pool where the lifeguard can't see all the way to the bottom. If they have to drain the pool every two days to get clear water, then so be it. Cloudy water is just too dangerous. If this could happen to a 38-year-old woman, imagine how easy it would be to lose a child!

 

[wfgodot]

Drowned woman was floating dead in public pool during TWO health inspector visits (Daily Mail)

Health inspectors have been placed on leave after failing to notice a woman's body lay at the bottom of a public pool for two days while people swam in the water.
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The morbid discovery came just hours after [two] city health officials came to test the water - and overlooked the corpse on two separate occasions.
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(more at link above)

Not exactly clear from this where the body was when the health inspectors were there - at the bottom, floating to the top, or floating on the surface. Still, seems clear that, wherever it was, the health inspectors had no clue. Good grief.

 

[wfgodot]

---
The investigation thus far establishes that the water in the pool was murky and cloudy from the time the pool opened for the season on Saturday, June 25th until the pool was closed by the pool staff on Tuesday afternoon, June 28th.

Visibility tests conducted with a police diver on Wednesday, June 29th, revealed that a submerged diver could not be seen at a depth of three-and-a-half to four feet below the surface of the water at the pool’s deep end.
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DA: Diver In Fall River Pool Could Not Be Seen 4′ Underwater (massdailynews.com)

 

[Nova]

I just sent a note to my daughter suggesting she and the grandkids swim in New Hampshire.

 

[BuzzieCat]

I sure would be curious to know what caused her to go under. Can't even begin to understand why someone didn't pay attention to the 9-year-old. Didn't someone in her group say, "Well, I wonder where she went?" and the kid hear that and say, "She sank to the bottom." ???

 

[Nova]

I sure would be curious to know what caused her to go under. Can't even begin to understand why someone didn't pay attention to the 9-year-old. Didn't someone in her group say, "Well, I wonder where she went?" and the kid hear that and say, "She sank to the bottom." ???

The article says they looked for her when it was time to go and couldn't find her, so they assumed she had gone home with other friends.

I'm just speculating, but I can imagine they looked across the surface of the water without thinking they needed to check the bottom.

As for the 9-year-old, I don't know. Maybe he assumed the lifeguard had done what he said he would do, and took care of it. I think some kids simply assume adults do what they say.

 

[Donjeta]

http://www.boston.com/news/local/ma...after_pool_death_in_fall_river/?camp=obinsite

Two pool managers and their supervisor in the state Department of Conservation and Recreation resigned after an inquiry found they violated safety guidelines by leaving the murky pool open, DCR officials said. And a Fall River health inspector was fired for approving the pool for use, even while the body of Marie Joseph was still at the bottom, Mayor William Flanagan said.

 

[Nova]

http://www.boston.com/news/local/ma...after_pool_death_in_fall_river/?camp=obinsite

Two pool managers and their supervisor in the state Department of Conservation and Recreation resigned after an inquiry found they violated safety guidelines by leaving the murky pool open, DCR officials said. And a Fall River health inspector was fired for approving the pool for use, even while the body of Marie Joseph was still at the bottom, Mayor William Flanagan said.

Thanks. My daughter in MA will be relieved. She was hearing that no one would be disciplined. (But she lives in a different part of the state.)

 

[southcitymom]

What a crazy story - SO many opportunities to find this woman were missed by the "professionals". Just awful.

 

[keeponsearching]

What a crazy story - SO many opportunities to find this woman were missed by the "professionals". Just awful.

lazy. Can people not do there jobs anymore.

I hate cloudy water pools. The inside pool at my area you can not see bottom, first its to dimmed in the pool area and second the color which is dark its to hard to see. I sometimes wonder when I am using a pool if its been properly sanitize. I have a pop up pool and that little thing takes a lot of work.

Sorry if I missed it, but what happen to the lady? Did she pass out or actually just drown. So very sad, and really scary that no one stopped to look.