More details released on Mozingo drowning

By Editor | August 5, 2016 |

TONY BROWN/DAILY FORUM
A sign at the entrance to the Mozingo Lake Recreation Park swimming area warns that no lifeguard is on duty and that patrons swim at their own risk. The area was the site of a drowning Monday when 16-year-old Jae Won Lee lost his life during an evening swim for students at Northwest Missouri State University’s Missouri Academy of Science, Mathematics, and Computing.

Maryville Public Safety Director Keith Wood on Thursday provided new details about the continuing investigation into the drowning of 16-year-old Jae Won Lee, a first-year Missouri Academy of Science, Mathematics, and Computing student from Seoul, South Korea.

Lee died Monday while swimming at Mozingo Lake Recreation Park. He was part of a group that included 29 new academy students scheduled to begin studies on the Northwest campus during the fall term as well as four returning academy students and three staff members.

The group was taking part in a welcome-to-campus picnic at the city-owned park that ended with an evening swimming session in a portion of the 1,000-acre reservoir set aside for that purpose.

Wood said the swim began around 6:25 p.m. and lasted for about 45 minutes before the group returned to a bus that was to take them back to the Northwest campus. He confirmed that no one noticed Lee was missing until the students had gathered at the vehicle.

According to reports, at least some members of the academy party conducted a brief search for Lee, but Wood said the group returned to Northwest just a short time after the youth was discovered missing and authorities were called.

The Mozingo swimming area is an unsupervised facility, and park patrons swim there at their own risk.

Asked if academy staff supervising the picnic had acted as lifeguards or conducted headcounts during the swim — both common practices during such outings conducted by Scouting organizations and other youth groups — Wood said he couldn’t “confirm that any of that was taking place.”

Wood also said no charges are contemplated, and that nothing indicates actions taken, or not taken, during the swim rose to the level of criminal negligence, nor is foul play suspected.

The director met Thursday with Lee’s parents, who flew to Missouri from South Korea and were to attend a memorial service that night at the Centennial Garden on the Northwest Campus.

Also meeting with Wood were a representative from the South Korean Consulate in Chicago and a third Korean citizen described as a liaison between the university, the academy, and the family.

Wood described Lee’s parents as consumed by grief.

“As a parent, I can’t imagine what they are going through,” he said. “And as a community, I think our role is to make that burden as light as possible.”

The parents described Lee’s swimming ability as “moderate,” said Wood, adding that the teenager’s previous experience in the water was limited to swimming pools.

“This was his first lake swim,” he said.

Lee’s body was located moments after a team of rescue divers summoned from Red Oak and Clarinda, Iowa, began searching the area about 9:30 p.m. Wood said the body was found in about 9 feet of water approximately 100 feet from shore and 50 feet from a dock-like platform located at the outer edge of the swimming cove.

While the investigation is still considered open, Wood said most of the remaining work will consist of re-interviewing witnesses in an attempt to be as thorough as possible.

He said most of the interviews in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy were conducted by the University Police Department, which handled the campus end of the investigation as the academy students returned to Northwest and Maryville Public Safety worked the drowning scene itself.

The interview process, Wood said, embraced “anybody and everybody” at or near the scene, including all 33 students and the three academy staff members.

For a while, Wood said, it was hoped Lee had merely strayed somewhere along the shore or perhaps even flagged a ride back to campus. While awaiting the diving team, city police mounted a search of the part of the park near the swimming beach while campus officers checked Lee’s dormitory.

The death is under investigation by the Nodaway County coroner’s office.

The Missouri Academy is a two-year residential early-college program on the Northwest campus for gifted students that replaces the junior and senior years of high school.

A Northwest release stated that the university was making on-site counseling available to Missouri Academy students and staff.

Other Northwest students in need of counseling outside regular hours at the campus’ Wellness Services office were encouraged to contact the University Police Department at 660-562-1254. Faculty and staff in emotional distress were advised to call the university employee assistance program at 800-964-3577.

A county counseling support line is also available to all members of the Northwest community at 888-279-8188.