Phil Scott/Eyewitness News
Lake Monroe - Precious minutes passed before anyone noticed a five-year-old swimmer was missing Monday afternoon in Lake Monroe. It took place at the Paynetown State Recreation Area near Bloomington.
On a hot Indiana summer afternoon a normally busy beach is nearly empty. The reason: a five-year-old Bedford boy disappeared while swimming with his 10-year-old sister and 13-year-old cousin.
Department of Natural Resources spokesperson Angela Goldman explains. "The boy was not a very good swimmer. And unfortunately, the girls went a little bit deeper and the boy tried to follow."
But he couldn't keep up, and when the child's aunt on the beach couldn't see him, she began searching. Eventually all 40 to 50 beachgoers joined in.
"They were approximately there in the middle of the beach," said Goldman. "He was found a little farther out, not quite all the way to the ropes, but close."
The boy had been under the water as many as ten minutes and could not be revived.
"I was sorry for their family," said young swimmer Julian Castillo. "If a five-year-old boy drowned and didn't have that much time to life, that'd be horrible."
"When you find out it's a little boy, you hold him closer, you hug him longer, and for a moment you get that sense of mortality," said Amy Castillo.
Eyewitness News observed one swimmer getting a warning from conservation officers because they had slipped under the rope, but those officers aren't usually there.
Paynetown Beach, like all state beaches, does not have a lifeguard. That leaves the responsibility to swim safely on the swimmers or the adults who brought them.
"This boy was not a good swimmer, so had he just been wearing a life jacket, even to just play in the shallow, it would have saved his life today (Monday)," said Goldman.
Officials delayed releasing the boy's name until Tuesday morning to notify family.
As for the lifeguards, they still work at pools on state property, but Indiana hasn't had them at state park beaches since 1999. Conservation officers say that's due to budget cuts.
