Chris
10-20-2004, 03:56:44 PM
Body found floating in Tempe's Town Lake
Katie Nelson
The Arizona Republic
Oct. 20, 2004 11:09 AM
Arizona State University rowers found a man's body floating in Tempe Town Lake early Wednesday, tangled among buoy lines.
The white man, in his 20s, was spotted near the Rural Road bridge about 6:10 a.m. by a freshman coxswain, a coach said. Only the man's head and shoulders were visible in the 70-degree water.
"We passed by it once without seeing it," said Lonya Bounds, who leads the club sport's novice team. "But when we were coming around a second time the sun was coming up and one of our girls saw him."
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The coaches had the three ASU boats get of the water.
"When we met up on the beach, she came up to us and said, 'Please don't tell me that's what I saw,'" Bounds said of the coxswain.
The team trains on Town Lake every day. Both the novice and varsity teams begin at 4:45 a.m., before the buzz of rush hour begins on the nearby Loop 202 and planes begin swooping east from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.
Three ASU boats, with one coxswain (who steers) and 8 rowers, were on the water Wednesday morning, along with about 12 other crew boats.
Police suspect the man could have been in the water as long as several days, Sgt. Dan Masters said. But while detectives are investigating, they have no reason to suspect foul play, he said.
"There was no obvious trauma to the body, and no evidence it had been tied to anything to make it sink," Masters said.
The man was wearing shorts and work boots when the Tempe firefighters removed the body from the lake. Police are currently looking to see if the body matches the description of any missing persons reports.
Early morning runners jogged past the yellow-taped scene at Town Lake Marina on the park's north side.
Most, like Kwame Rainford, 34, were oblivious to the rowers' finding.
Although Rainford often works out alone on the trails winding through Papago Park and Tempe Beach Park, he said he doesn't worry.
"If something were to happen, every five minutes there's another runner, rollerblader, biker passing by," he said, slightly out of breath from his morning jog. "It's weird that no one found this guy sooner though."
The body is the third found in Town Lake since it opened in 1999.
The first was in the summer of 2002, when another man drowned on the lake's northern side after emerging intoxicated from nearby Club Rio. The second was in June. Alcindor Myers dived into the water in the lake's south side and drowned.
Swimming in Town Lake is prohibited.
Nice little touch to the end there...
~Chris
Katie Nelson
The Arizona Republic
Oct. 20, 2004 11:09 AM
Arizona State University rowers found a man's body floating in Tempe Town Lake early Wednesday, tangled among buoy lines.
The white man, in his 20s, was spotted near the Rural Road bridge about 6:10 a.m. by a freshman coxswain, a coach said. Only the man's head and shoulders were visible in the 70-degree water.
"We passed by it once without seeing it," said Lonya Bounds, who leads the club sport's novice team. "But when we were coming around a second time the sun was coming up and one of our girls saw him."
advertisement
The coaches had the three ASU boats get of the water.
"When we met up on the beach, she came up to us and said, 'Please don't tell me that's what I saw,'" Bounds said of the coxswain.
The team trains on Town Lake every day. Both the novice and varsity teams begin at 4:45 a.m., before the buzz of rush hour begins on the nearby Loop 202 and planes begin swooping east from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.
Three ASU boats, with one coxswain (who steers) and 8 rowers, were on the water Wednesday morning, along with about 12 other crew boats.
Police suspect the man could have been in the water as long as several days, Sgt. Dan Masters said. But while detectives are investigating, they have no reason to suspect foul play, he said.
"There was no obvious trauma to the body, and no evidence it had been tied to anything to make it sink," Masters said.
The man was wearing shorts and work boots when the Tempe firefighters removed the body from the lake. Police are currently looking to see if the body matches the description of any missing persons reports.
Early morning runners jogged past the yellow-taped scene at Town Lake Marina on the park's north side.
Most, like Kwame Rainford, 34, were oblivious to the rowers' finding.
Although Rainford often works out alone on the trails winding through Papago Park and Tempe Beach Park, he said he doesn't worry.
"If something were to happen, every five minutes there's another runner, rollerblader, biker passing by," he said, slightly out of breath from his morning jog. "It's weird that no one found this guy sooner though."
The body is the third found in Town Lake since it opened in 1999.
The first was in the summer of 2002, when another man drowned on the lake's northern side after emerging intoxicated from nearby Club Rio. The second was in June. Alcindor Myers dived into the water in the lake's south side and drowned.
Swimming in Town Lake is prohibited.
Nice little touch to the end there...
~Chris