Coroner Reports on Drowning Victim, As Students Remember Him

Meghan Fisher and Patricia Mucerino
Published: July 1, 2008

Investigators are calling the drowning death of a rising football player, a tragedy.  They say 16-year-old Jarvis Lee Walker was swimming on Lake Bowen with teammates and coaches when he went under the water off Whippoorwill Drive in Campobello.

The coroner’s office says if Walker would have swam just six more feet, he would have been able to stand.  Officials say Walker just got tired of swimming and began to take water in his lungs.  He drowned in just seven and one half feet of water.

The Coroner’s Office ruled Walker’s death an accidental drowning.  He and several others went out on a floating dock, but Walker went under water and never made it back.  Friends and coaches were unable to save him.

Walker was swimming in cargo pants that weighed 5 pounds when they were wet.  The coroners office wants to remind everyone to wear proper swim attire.

He would have been a sophomore this year at Spartanburg High and was a recent graduate of Carver Junior High School.

Carver Junior High School is allowing his friends and classmates to write their memories of him, and the school will put a book together for Walker’s family.  Administrators say a lot of students are talking to counselors Tuesday.  Spartanburg High School also has counselors on hand.
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