UPDATE: Passerby Who Tried to Save Drowned Man Tells His Story

BELLEPLAIN – Manuel Osorio 48, of Wildwood, drowned June 17 at Lake Nummy in Belleplain State Forest. At 6:09 p.m. a family member of Osorio’s called 911 to report that he was in distress, according to Larry Ragonese, press director of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP).
Lake Nummy, Ragonese said, is 26 acres and the area in which Osorio had been swimming was about 10 feet deep. The lake was closed for swimming at the time of the drowning, no lifeguards were on duty and there were ‘No Swimming’ signs posted on the beach, lifeguard stands and at the front gate.
“There was a passerby, Jonathan Stauffer, 25, of Mickleton, who tried to rescue the victim,” Ragonese said. “Stauffer jumped in the water and swam out to try to save him.”
Stauffer and his fiancée Kimchi Siu were in the area as they just came from swimming at Sea Isle City. “We were scoping out campsites (in Bellplain State Forest) for later in the summer and we thought we’d just take a dip in the lake to wash off the salt water from the ocean,” Stauffer said. When they pulled up to Lake Nummy, they saw someone was in the water.
“There were a couple kids near the edge of the water and I saw the person swimming,” Stauffer said. “I didn’t think anything of it at the time. But within like five seconds, we both noticed the head disappear under the water. I looked to my fiancée and said ‘There was somebody just in the middle of the lake right?’ And she said there definitely was. I looked again to where we last saw the person swimming and I kind of counted to myself ‘1-2-3-4-5’ and there was nothing. I screamed to the family and they started screaming and one of the family members called 911.”
Stauffer ran into the water and swam out to where he’d last seen the distressed swimmer. When he reached the area, he dove down several times. Each time he came up, Stauffer said he was screaming, “I can’t find him! I can’t find him!” Stauffer said he swam to the lake floor and touched “mucky, grassy mud water about 10 feet down. I couldn’t see a thing down there. Finally, my hand touched either a foot or a hand and I pulled him up off the floor. I held onto his hand and I swam all the way from the middle of the lake to where the buoys are.”
It was still too deep at the buoys to touch the bottom and Stauffer was fatigued. Two of the victim’s family members were treading water at the buoys. “I think it was the man’s son and another family member,” Stauffer said. “I couldn’t swim with him anymore. I handed him (Osorio) to them. I handed them his arm and they had him. I’d been swallowing water and stuff. I couldn’t hold him anymore.”
Exhausted, Stauffer swam back to his fiancée who was “neck-deep in the water. She can’t swim and she was doing everything she could, screaming for help. When I got to her, I turned around and saw the two men splashing around by the buoys. That’s when I realized they dropped the body and I flipped out. I started screaming and crying. Kimchi was screaming and crying. The family was screaming and crying. And that’s when we got out of the water and sat by the lifeguard stand.”
Once Stauffer was back on the beach, he said, within a minute rescue squads and EMTs were running to the scene. “One of the EMTs jumped into the water. He didn’t hesitate, didn’t take his shoes off or anything. He swam right out to the buoys where I handed him off and nobody could find him. That’s what blows my mind. He should have been right there.
“I don’t know if he was alive when I had him,” Stauffer said. “He wasn’t kicking or anything. He was completely unconscious. But people survive after being under water for five minutes. … I can’t sleep. I can’t really think straight. People tell me ‘you did a good job’ and ‘you did the best that you could.’ But I don’t feel like I did because I feel like, in hindsight, if I knew they were going to drop him, I could have just swam him to the beach myself. I was just so tired. And I just feel really horrible.”
When the 911 call came in, Ragonese said, State Park police responded and were at the scene within three to five minutes. When they arrived, they were unable to find Osorio. State Park police called the Downe Township Dive Rescue Squad, which responded and found the body at 8:38 p.m.
Belleplain Volunteer Fire Company and Dennis Volunteer Fire Department responded with two marine units. Belleplain EMS, Town Bank Fire Company and Villas Fire Company also assisted.
Osorio was pronounced dead on the scene by the Cape May County Medical Examiner’s Office. They performed an autopsy.
“It’s tragic,” Ragonese said. “Our hearts go out to the family.”
Though Lake Nummy was closed to swimming at the time of the drowning, it opened June 18 and will have lifeguards on duty seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The summer schedule was set prior to the drowning.
To contact Bryon Cahill, email bcahill@cmcherald.com.