DAYTON — A pond where a man drowned Wednesday night has signs warning people not to fish or swim.
Matthew O. Mitchell Jr., 33, of Dayton, was pronounced dead Wednesday night after his body was pulled from a pond at Action Sports Complex. Mitchell went into the pond to clear a snagged bobber and never resurfaced, fire District Chief Mike Fasnacht said.
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Action Sports Complex owner Kyle Coby said several people come to the pond everyday despite signs clearly saying not to fish or swim.
“We do everything in our power to keep them off,” Coby said. “It’s the city’s lake. They posted signs that say no trespassing, no fishing, no swimming.”
Coby found someone fishing at the pond today, and when he told the man someone had drowned just the previous night, the man responded the victim was his cousin.
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“It’s wild to me that that he would even consider being out here to fish if his cousin just drowned doing the same exact thing last night,” Coby said.
Debris is scattered in and around the lake from the Memorial Day tornadoes, and it was an old rock quarry.
Sonar was used to locate the victim as divers were searching blind because of the darkness and the debris in the pond, such as steel rebar and other solid materials, Fasnacht said.
