This story by Emma Roth-Wells was first published in the Valley News on July 2.
WINDSOR — First responders recovered what is believed to be the body of a missing 14-year-old girl from Kennedy Pond on Wednesday evening.
An investigation into the death is ongoing, Windsor Police Chief Bill Daniels said.
The girl is from the Burlington area, according to Lt. Charles Winn from the Vermont State Police dive team. Further information about the girl’s identity was not immediately available.
The girl is believed to have been at the pond with “friends of the family,” Daniels said while on the scene.
The VSP team recovered the body less than 100 feet offshore between the docks and a yellow floating raft at about 5:30 p.m., after 45 minutes of searching.
In addition to the VSP team, the Hanover dive team responded to the call at about 12:15 p.m. for a water rescue, as did Windsor fire and police departments.
Emma McCumber, who grew up in Windsor but now lives in Massachusetts, was swimming at the pond with her kids when she heard screams from the beach from those who noticed the girl was missing.
“Immediately the lifeguards hopped into action,” McCumber said when she returned to the pond hours later to check for updates.
Before police cleared the water of all swimmers, McCumber, along with some dozen other bystanders, searched for the girl herself for about 45 minutes.
“It was an amazing community effort,” she said.
Without any diving equipment besides goggles, the bystanders attempted to do a grid search. “We went down as deep as we could but it was pretty useless. There’s really long weeds in that area. You can’t see your hands in front of your face.”
Told the girl had pink hair, the bystanders searched for the distinctive feature in the water.
“We just kept looking for pink hair,” McCumber said.
Wednesday’s incident was the latest water-related death in Vermont this summer.
Late last month, there were three drownings in Vermont in the span of five days, VTDigger reported.
An 18-year-old Burlington High School student died after jumping into the water at Bartlett Falls in Bristol on June 21.
A 30-year-old employee of Basin Harbor Club in Ferrisburgh drowned in Lake Champlain on June 24.
Another man was found dead further north in Lake Champlain near Red Rocks Park in South Burlington on June 25.
