OMG!! Woman's dead body in public swimming pool for 2 days

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susiestar

Roll With It
https://web.archive.org/web/2016022...achusetts-dead-body-public-pool_n_888266.html

Would YOU swim in a public pool that was cloudy? I have never seen one that wasn't clear and sure wouldn't go in. This pool in Massachusetts had a dead woman in it for TWO DAYS and the lifeguards, pool staff, and even SWIMMERS didn't notice her. HOW GROSS.

Is this even possible? I bet this pool gets sued and even has to close for good because the patrons are so grossed out. I would not take my kids to a pool where this had happened no matter what they did. Just the very idea is too gross for me.
 
Hound dog

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Maybe Marg would know, but I thought after so many hours a dead body floats to the surface. If she was actually in the water for a few days, I'd think that would've been enough time for the body to float to the surface of the water.

I'd be interested in the coroner's report. But I don't know if they can tell how long she was there. I have a sneaky suspicion that she might have been killed elsewhere and dumped......didn't read the article, just watched the video. They didn't say she was swimming, just that she was found in the pool.

It does have a strong ick factor. But after transporting many a dead body to the morgue that part doesn't bother me. What bothers me is that no one noticed her, not life guards, staff, nor other swimmers. I'd be scared to let kids swim there because obviously if they find themselves in trouble no one is going to notice.

Wow.
 
H

HaoZi

Guest
It said her friends thought she walked away from the pool, so she was there alive at some point. A body will sink, then float, then sink again. The speed at which those occur varies depending many factors. Also possible she was weighted down, or caught on something and drowned that way, then got jostled loose when the kids went for their "clandestine swim."

Yeah, public pools should NOT be murky or cloudy. Bad water conditions and every pool I've seen will shut down until the water's chemistry is correct again. I've seen them shut down for slightly too much chlorine until it cycled out.

The inspectors should have noticed (they should be checking for more than pH), and the end of day checks really should have caught it. It is possible she left with someone and was dumped in the pool later, maybe shortly before the kids found her. At least they reported it even though they weren't supposed to be there.
 
S

susiestar

Roll With It
Id on't mind being near a dead body, got over that as a teen candystriper. We had to take stuff to the morgue from labor and delivery and the ER all the time. They supposedly tried not to have bodies in there when we took stuff down, but for a couple of us who had been there a long time (average length of time was about 3 months) they gave up on that. So I saw lots of dead bodies. Plus one of my bro's friends in elem school lived in a mortuary so when I was there they often tried to lock me into the viewing rooms or the embalming room. At 5 and 7 it was scary, not so much after that. (THen my pedicatrician bought the place and moved the practice into it - talk about wierd!)

I think ANYTHING left in a pool more than a day is a problem - at least safety wise. The fact that it was a dead body and was under the surface and no kid went down and looked just seems odd. At our pool there are always some kids diving for coins or dive sticks or something. And they have their eyes open.

I think she wasn't seen because the pool was cloudy - to me that is a huge safety issue. How would they know a kid was in trouble or kids were holding each other down below the surface? Also how would they know if a little kid pooped in the pool? It happens a couple of times a summer here and they have to filter all of the water, treat it with heavy duty chemicals, and filter it all again before they can open. Often they lose the day it happened and the next day's business and they make the parents of the child pay for it, about $300. If it is a small child and they have a swim diaper (sold for $2 at the pool or BYO) then they don't get the fees or the closing. If it is a child alone or with an underage babysitter the parents have to pay. They had one summer where it happened a lot because parents were using the pool as free daycare - drop off the kid with some snack money and pick them up after work. But the kids caused big problems, and some of the boys found it hilarious to take a dump in the pool - three were banned for life because they were actually pulling their pants down underwater to do this. One of my friends' kids was a life guard and we were shocked to learn how expensive it is to clean up after that. It wasn't just the boys that did it (why is it always boys? to date the only time a girl has done it was an accident where the kid was sick from something she ate at the snack bar - and they proved that with a lab test. The snack bar got revamped and the girl's family didn't have to pay because it was basically the pool's fault according the the lawyers.), the pool actually banned the parents too. It was a big fuss because they argued that they shouldn't be banned - but they dropped a 12yo off with no supervision and told him to wait for a family to go in and say he was with them, so they got banned too.

Anyway, in my opinion this has to be a huge problem. What do you do to a pool to make it cloudy enough you cannot see the bottom? My aunt ran a swimming pool for almost 30 yrs and NEVER did she even know you COULD make the pool cloudy.
 
ready2run

ready2run

New Member
sounds like they could have saved her if they would have listened:

At some point, Joseph and a 9-year-old boy in the group went into the pool from a slide, Reis said. After they splashed into the water, the boy noticed that Joseph hadn't come back up, Reis said.
"He got up to the water and went to go tell the lifeguard," said Reis, who talked the 9-year-old afterward. "The lifeguard said he was going to do a pool check. ... They never did that. They never did anything."
 
Star*

Star*

call 911........call 911
When I lived in FL - the house the my former sister in law lived in used to be occupied by a family that the man killed his girlfriend and stuffed her in a trash can, then dumped the trash can into the above ground pool. Pools only take a day or two at best to get murky without bodies in them. This pool was so green and stagnant that no one even thought about checking it or the contents for a body let alone a trash can until months and months later when no one could find this woman. The pool was drained by means of a super sucker and when the coroner opened the trash can she was found whole, intact, and wilted. His thought was that the chemicals from the pool (bleach and sanitizer) would eventually destroy her. Did nothing of the sort. The water was green and no one noticed any foul smell other than normal pool stagnant smell.

When my former sister in law moved into the house the pool frame was still there - the liner had been taken for evidence and they were left with removing what was left. The man was convicted to live in prison.

I will say one thing about swimming pools after living in FL - it does not take long at all for them to go bad. If you don't keep the right Ph in a pool they go bad like (snap) even the small one we had here - only 15' x 4' tall - WOW - just days without shock or baking soda or what have you even if no one was in it - and it didn't take any time at all to turn cloudy. That was with our pump and filter running all the time.
 
S

susiestar

Roll With It
How odd, Star. We used to take care of my Gma's neighbor's pool almost every year when we went to FL. They often went on vacation at that time, esp after Gpa died and they helped take care of Gma (she paid them to, of course). The years we didn't swim much the pool NEVER got cloudy. Even the year they forgot to leave the key for the shed that had the pool chemicals. We didn't know what they used and even after 2 weeks with no chemicals it wasn't cloudy. Ever. Heck, that year we went and bought bleach from the laundry section because we didn't know what brand to use and we didn't want them to come home to a nasty pool. It had some algae but the water was clear. I remember that year WELL because the water line to their ice maker in their fridge developed a leak and when I went inside to try to find info on the pool chemicals the carpet was soaked. My legs turned a solid black in three seconds after I went in (from the knee down) because their dog had fleas bad and the water seemed Occupational Therapist (OT) help them breed. I was COVERED with them and have had allergic reactions to them ever since. SO I remember the details of that visit clearly.

Janet, I don't know if odd things happen more here. Wouldn't be surprised as this is a college town and the students do some truly bizarre things. mostly I think I just listen and know people who run various things around town, including the town government and facilities. I have an odd memory that remembers many things that others don't. My dad has it too and it can get cluttered with details and trivial things. Memories like the kids in the city pool are trivial to my daily life, but I cannot seem to forget them.
 
TerryJ2

TerryJ2

Well-Known Member
Well, the boy's story sounds legit, but already I've seen theories that she was murdered (b4 she was in the pool?), especially since no one called the police or said she was missing right away ...
I'd not want to swim in a cloudy pool no matter what. I'm glad it's closed for now.
We'll just have to wait and see what the coroner's rept says and what the police investigation shows.
 
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