Early this morning, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office was at the scene of a possible drowning at a lake on the campus of Florida Gulf Coast University, 12181 FGCU Lake Parkway, E., Fort Myers.
The victim has been identified as Joel Johnson DOB 4/4/90. Joel was from Lauderhill Florida and was a student at FGCU. The cause of death appears to be an accidental drowning.
The Lee County Sheriff’s Office received a 911 call at 1:03 a.m. in reference to a swimmer that had not resurfaced. Emergency personnel immediately responded to the scene and attempted to locate the swimmer. The San Carlos Fire Department located the missing swimmer’s body at 3:16 a.m.
Due to the nature of the incident, a homicide detective with the Lee County Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Unit responded to the scene. The investigation revealed a group of young adults had gathered and some of them decided to take a late night swim. As they swam to a “swim trampoline” near the shore, one of the swimmers began to experience some sort of distress. The victim went under the water and could not be located.
Crisis counselors were on campus early this morning