Young man’s body pulled from Mosquito Lake in Bazetta Township

Staff report

BAZETTA

Rescuers pulled the body of a young man wearing swimming trunks from the waters of Mosquito Lake near the marina at 4 p.m. Friday.

Though an Ohio Department of Natural Resources police officer said the body has not yet been identified, it’s likely to be that of Travis Shaffer, 16, of Fowler Township, whose car was parked at the shore near where the body was found.

Shaffer took his father’s car about 1 a.m. Thursday and didn’t return. The car was found in a parking space across a large parking lot from the marina.

“It’s not the start we’d like to see,” officer Richard Polk said of the busy boating, fishing and swimming area of Mosquito Lake State Park.

It seems likely the youth was swimming, but he was not in a designated swimming area, Polk said.

Rescuers located his body using sonar in a boat about 200 yards from shore in a boating area, Polk said.

Dozens of searchers had been looking for the youth since early Thursday.

Meanwhile, the Trumbull County Coroner’s office said Friday it is going to use dental records to try to identify the body of a male found in a rural area of Bristol Township Thursday morning.

As of late Friday, the identity had not been determined, however, and an autopsy will be done over the weekend, a spokesman said.

Warren police say the body may be that of Brandon H. Sample, 22, of Garfield Street, who has been missing since Monday, but the coroner’s office will have to make the determination to be “100 percent sure.”

Warren police found the body while investigating Sample’s whereabouts.

Also, the coroner’s office will conduct an autopsy today on the body of Donald Hummer, 60, of Youngstown Road in Niles. A citizen found his body about 11:30 a.m. Thursday near the AT&T store on Youngstown Road, across from the Eastwood Mall.

An autopsy on the body of Neveah Jones, 15 months old, of Homewood Avenue Southeast also will be conducted today, the coroner’s office said.

Neveah was found not breathing after getting into a swimming pool in her back yard Wednesday night, according to family members who called 911.