Newton Falls drowning victim ID’d

The teen was under the water for about four minutes, a witness said.

STAFF REPORT

NEWTON FALLS — A day of playful rafting and swimming at a Newton Township pond turned into a tragedy when an eighth-grade pupil at Newton Falls Junior High School drowned.

Willard “Doug” Jenkins of Kings Drive in the Blue Water Manor, a mobile home park off Salt Springs Road, was pronounced dead Tuesday evening at Forum Health Trumbull Memorial Hospital, Warren, after he couldn’t be resuscitated at the pond site.

He had been swimming and rafting with friends when his raft tipped over.

The Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office report said that Willard, 15, was swimming with 19-year-old Shawn Kittinger also of Kings Drive; Patrick Heflin, 13, of Queens Drive; and Codie Huey, 14, of Kings, all in the mobile home park.

Kittinger told deputies he and the others were about 15 to 20 feet from shore and they started swimming toward land. On the way back, Patrick yelled that Willard went under the water and Kittinger went back for him.

While the others ran for help, Kittinger said he retrieved Willard, dragged him to shore and began administering cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Willard had been under the water for about four minutes, Kittinger said.

Two adults, Joshua Lomax and Pamela Garvey, Codie’s mother, both Blue Water Manor residents, arrived and took over administering CPR until emergency medical technicians arrived, according to the report. EMTs had been called shortly before 7 p.m.

Patrick told deputies that Willard’s raft had flipped over before he went under.

Newton Falls Schools Superintendent David Wilson said counselors have been made available at the junior high school for pupils and staff and at the middle school because pupils who live at the mobile home park were at the scene.