By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – A Tacoma teen originally from Nigeria experiencing camping for the first time drowned in the Chehalis River over the weekend.
Linsey Mike was 17 years old.
The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office said the young man had only been in Washington for eight months.
Rescuers were called about 3:20 p.m. on Saturday to an area near the falls, by the entrance to Rainbow Falls State Park, approximately12 miles west of Chehalis but didn’t recover his body until yesterday morning.
Mike was camping with a group of friends at the park when they all decided to go swimming in the river, according to responders.
The sheriff’s office said Mike told his friends he was not a good swimmer and one of them told him not to jump in the water, but he did.
“One witness said when he surfaced from the jump, he looked panic stricken and began flailing his arms,” the sheriff’s office stated in a news release. “The witness, a 19 year old female, jumped in to save him but he was flailing his arms so much that she was unable to make contact before he quickly went under water and did not resurface.”
The falls are not tall, but the water is cold and the current is swift.
Members of fire districts in Pe Ell and Dryad-Doty, along with the sheriff’s office swift water rescue team and a diver from Thurston County responded on Saturday afternoon and returned yesterday morning.
His body was found in the same area where he went under, the sheriff’s office said.
It’s the second river drowning in the county in recent weeks and the third drowning locally this spring.
Sheriff Steve Mansfield took the opportunity to issue a statement noting that 90 percent of water-related fatalities could be prevented by wearing life jackets or some type of flotation device, something especially important for those who aren’t good swimmers.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter