A 15-year-old McKeesport boy drowned in Jacobs Creek, a Pennsylvania State Police spokesman confirmed Wednesday.
The Westmoreland County Coroner’s Office identified the boy as NaDarrius W. Lundy, a resident of Mc-Keesport’s Crawford Village apartment complex.
Lundy’s body was recovered in the Creek Falls section of South Huntingdon shortly after 10 a.m., Trooper Robert Broadwater said.
Lundy’s family reported him missing late Tuesday, according to the coroner’s office. Crews started searching for the him in the area of Chaintown Bridge Road just before midnight.
According to Broadwater, crews from Scottdale, Perryopolis, Dawson, East Huntingdon and Greensburg started the search on land but moved to the water, where the body was later found. The boy’s death is being investigated as an accidental drowning, pending an autopsy, which is scheduled for Thursday.
“You need to be careful when you’re back there. We encourage to not go back there,” Broadwater said, noting a popular swimming spot is located about two miles down Chaintown Bridge Road on private property. A strong current that can pull people beneath an underwater ledge makes it a dangerous place to swim, he said.
About 100 people were at the location Tuesday night, Broadwater said.
Several cars filled with people pulled up to the site Wednesday morning, asking if access was open to the creek, which runs along the border of Fayette and Westmoreland counties.
“We understand you’re trapped in your houses and you want to get out,” Broadwater said. “There’s probably going to be more of a flow of people back there then there was in the past. It’s always been a heavily populated destination for years.”
The incident occurred almost two years after Dylan Knopsnider, 21, of Connellsville, suffered a “significant head injury” when he went into the rain-swollen stream June 5, 2018. Knopsnider died from asphyxiation from drowning, the Fayette County coroner said at the time.
The death was ruled an accident.
“We’re asking you not to come, but if you do come we ask you to use common sense. Don’t think it’s just a traditional place to go swimming and jump off rocks,” Broadwater said. “Just use your common sense, that’s all we’re asking you to do. The water doesn’t forgive you. And the rocks underneath there and the garbage that’s in the water, it isn’t going to respect you either if you don’t respect it. We just ask you to be careful.”
Caldwell Funeral Home in Duquesne will handle Lundy’s funeral arrangements.
