One of the teens who was at Tipton Lakes when a 17-year-old friend disappeared under the water said the group didn’t realize their friend was struggling in the water.
The body of Tyrell D. Bowers, a 2021 Columbus East High School graduate, was found in 12 feet of water in the Tipton Lakes swimming area near a platform by Indiana Department of Natural Resources divers at 11:24 p.m. Saturday. Bowers was pronounced dead by Bartholomew County Coroner Clayton Nolting at the scene.
Nolting has not released a cause and manner of death yet for Bowers, saying he is waiting on toxicology results from an autopsy that was conducted Sunday. DNR spokeswoman Angela Goldman said friends and family told them Bowers, who was an East football player and ran track, was not an accomplished swimmer.
Connor Essick, 17, Columbus, was one of Bowers’ friends who was with him Saturday. Essick, who plays football for Columbus North High School, had been friends with Bowers since he arrived in Columbus from New Orleans in the last two or three years.
Essick said he, Bowers and several other friends had gone to the Juneteenth celebration in downtown Columbus and then ate at a Burger King before deciding to go to the Tipton Lakes swimming area, a location that the friends had been hanging out at most of the summer so far.
The seven arrived there at about 8 p.m. and had spent some time doing “one-on-one” football drills, running routes on the beach and listening to music, Essick said.
Essick and one of his other friends decided to swim out to a lake platform that was about 10 feet out in the water, while Bowers and others stayed at the beach. At that time, Bowers and another teen told the others they were not strong swimmers, Essick said.
Shortly after that, Essick and his friend were encouraging Bowers and others to come out to the platform, saying if Essick’s friend did a backflip off the platform, the others, including Bowers, had to swim out.
Essick estimated that it was possible to walk out to the platform until a drop-off just a few feet from the platform, where the water was deeper. He described the water in the lake as “murky” as the recent rainfall had stirred up lake sediment.
They did not know for sure how deep the water was near the platform, Essick said.
Eventually Bowers and others did come out to the platform, with some of the teens swimming back to the picnic tables, and another teen making another trip back.
When Bowers and Essick were on the platform, Essick said Bowers told him he did know how to swim and he was just joking about not being a strong swimmer, contradicting the earlier statement.
At that time, Bowers, Essick and another friend were on the platform and all three decided to swim back to the picnic tables, Essick said. Bowers then told Essick that he didn’t know how to dive off the platform, and asked Essick to show him how.
Essick complied, telling Bowers to keep his body long and straight and to put his hands over his head — and then Essick dived to show Bowers how to do it and began swimming to the beach, he said.
Essick did not see Bowers dive in, but got to the beach and was drying off when he saw Bowers about five feet away from the platform, but he was not moving toward shore, he said.
Bowers was not flailing his arms or screaming or asking for help, Essick said. At first, the friends thought Bowers was joking around, until one of the other teens yelled, “he’s drowning.”
When that realization was made, the friends got into the water to try to help Bowers, while one called 911, but Bowers had disappeared under the surface, Essick said.
Essick said he and his friends did not realize how serious the situation was when Bowers was in the lake and initially believed that Bowers was joking with them.
The friends stayed at the beach with Bowers’ family members while DNR divers searched for the victim and answered questions from law enforcement about what happened.
Describing his friend as an outgoing person who made the whole environment happier when he was around, Essick said Bowers also would spend time talking about his mom and sister.
Essick said he was unsure what Bowers had planned for after high school, only that he had talked about returning to his hometown of New Orleans and perhaps pursuing boxing.
The teens are planning on attending a memorial service for Bowers at noon Saturday at St. Peter’s Lutheran School, The Den-Gymnasium, 919 Fifth St.
Organizers of the service have asked that the community “keep his (Bowers’) family in prayer.”
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”Public memorial service” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
A memorial service for 17-year-old Tyrell Bowers is planned at noon Saturday at St. Peter’s Lutheran School, The Den-Gymnasium, 919 Fifth St.
[sc:pullout-text-end]
