On 7-2-11 at approximately 1330 hrs i, indiana conservation officer, was contacted by the whitley co sheriff's dept and advised of an unconscious male subject at the east end of shriner lake. The subject had apparently been involved in a boating accident out on the lake and had been transported to this location by boat after the accident. Upon my arrival the victim was still unconscious and was being loaded onto the ambulance for transport to parkview whitley hospital. 

While on the scene i spoke with everyone who had been involved in this accident. Passenger was riding on a pwc, as a passenger, with victim operating the machine. While traveling west bound across the lake along the northern shore of the lake, both victim and passenger had been thrown from the pwc and into the water. Passenger explained the water was rough due to all the other boating traffic out on the lake at that time. While traveling at a fairly high rate of speed and manuevering back and forth across the rough water they had both lost their balance and ended up in the water. 

Immediately after impact she stated victim had looked up at her and just a few seconds later appeared to go into some type of seizure with his head falling face down into the water. She immediately swam to his location and held his head up above the water. She was eventually able to get the attention of another adult male on a different pwc who helped pull victim up out of the water next to his pwc. Eventually good samaritan was able to get the attention of yet another boat for further assitance. Once the boat pulled up next to them everyone was able to pull victim and passenger out of the water and onboard the boat. Just as they were getting everyone out of the water another boat pulled up to see what was going on. 

With victim and passenger on board the boat, good samaritan immediately began cpr on victim and they headed towards victim's residence along the far southeast end of the lake. Once at shore cpr was continued until ems and fire personnel arrived on scene to continue further life saving procedures. Victim was then taken to parkview whitley hospital for continued treatment. Soon after arrival at parkview whitley victim was transfered to parkview main hospital in ft wayne, in. On the following morning of 7-3-11 victim was removed from all life suporting systems and allowed to expire. On that same date a post mortem exam was conducted on his body. From this exam it was determined that victim had a pre-existing heart condition which most likely played a key role in his death as  a result of simply being thrown from a pwc and hitting the water, no other serious injuries were found on his body.

Columbia City                 