How Safe are Public Pools?

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You have the creeps that hang out at public pools and now you have dead bodies lying in public pools unnoticed for days.

A woman’s dead body apparently lay on the bottom of a state pool for two days while children played there — with lifeguards on duty — until passers-by spotted her corpse late Tuesday and called police, authorities said.

“The facts would appear to indicate a woman was in the water for a number of days,” unnoticed by patrons, staff, or even local health inspectors, said Sullivan. Sullivan said the facts suggested a “breakdown systematically somewhere.”

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1348872

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Type: Question • Score: 16 • Views: 11,132 • Replies: 65

@Linkat,

This is baffling. How can you not notice a dead body for 2 days?

2 Replies

@Ragman,

Supposedly the water was murky....which of course begs the next question - who would swim in a public pool that was murky?

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@Ragman,

Well, you know. . . . Whoever discovers the body becomes suspect #1. Let's all pretend we didn't see it.

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There are people in that video saying they swam in the pool afterwards, it was sunny, they could "see everything" and there wasn't a body. I don't know if I trust the story of this 9 year old who say "she went in the water and drowned" and he doesn't say anything to 2 days? I don't think he's lying, just creating a story in his 9 year old mind that fits.

I'd like to see the autopsy results that show she was in the water for that many hours.

Maybe she was killed elsewhere and put in the water afterwards as an alibi?

1 Reply

@chai2,

Yes that is what many people discussing this case suspect - although she wasn't there just with the 9 year old but with some other friends - people around claim they saw her come down the slide after the boy and ran into some one in the water and didn't see her come up.

Now who sees that and doesn't say anything? The whole thing sounds odd. Hopefully we will find out more over the next few days. In the mean time, I'm staying away from pools - I'll take my chances with the sharks in the ocean.

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@Linkat,

Appropos of nothing, I got a massive ear infection from a publicly run (MDC ..Metropolitan District Commision) pool in Stoneham, Mass. Around 1966, so I have avoided going to public pools since.

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@Linkat,

That's weird too. Friends claiming they saw her go under, but not come up.
They didn't notice at any time after that she wasn't with them?

Sometimes I see someone go underwater to swim, and of course I don't know their lung capacity, but I'll think "wow, they've been under for awhile" and I'll start looking for them to come up.

Unless her friends were actually looking right at her when she went down the slide, are they really sure they saw it? Again, not saying they're not telling the truth, but maybe it's the truth as they remember it.
You're somewhere and you know your friend is over there by the slide with a kid, you're looking around and she's passes through your field of vision. It's natural to complete the story in your head. Afterwards, thinking and thinking about it, you can absolutely convince yourself you saw her going into the water off the slide, when you may have just seen her starting to climb the ladder.

I remember you telling a story about when you were little, and your friend slipped under.

Tell us again Auntie Linkat, that was a good one!

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Didn't Chai2 see a stiff in her neighborhood pool? sorry couldn't let that one go LOL

1 Reply

@jcboy,

You beat me to the punchline... Another stiffy in a speedo... Better call our resident expert.

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There's something else strange about this.

Why was the body at the bottom of the pool? Was it caught it something?

If it wasn't, with the current from the pool filters and jets, and the movement of water from people moving around and swimming, that body should have been moving to different parts of the pool.

I find it hard to believe a body was underwater, in one place where no one saw it, for that amount of time.

1 Reply

@chai2,

I wonder how long it takes for a body to develope enough gas to float it to the surface. In warm weather, I mean.

1 Reply

@roger,

roger wrote:

I wonder how long it takes for a body to develope enough gas to float it to the surface. In warm weather, I mean.

Does a body always sink initially when drowned? I really don't know.
I know I float when I relax in the water, and I'm alive...hold on, let me check my pulse. Shocked

Here's an aerial shot of the pool.
While the water isn't crystal clear, you can definately see the swim lanes under water. even in the deeper water. It's not that murky that you wouldn't see someone.

http://a57.foxnews.com/static/managed/img/Scitech/Sept/396/223/pool.JPG

1 Reply

@Linkat,

I think it is interesting, the reaction, that they closed all deep water pools as a result of this.
That seems a bit overboard to me, at the height of summer no less.
The stories involved in this case seem more than a little strange.

So the 9 year old, who she was watching over, went home alone and said nothing? No one missed this woman for 2 days?
Some kids found her in the dark, but no one could see her in the daylight?

2 Replies

@Linkat,

Boston Herald has just updated this story. Part of the problem is that the pool was open without a permit.

Quote:

How it all happened
(Boston Herald, July 1, 2011)

Saturday, June 25 — Fall River officials say the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation’s Veteran’s Memorial Swimming Pool at Lafayette Park in Fall River opens for the season without a required municipal health permit.

Sunday, June 26, afternoon — Marie Joseph, 36, of Fall River goes to Veteran’s pool and watches over a 9-year-old boy who lives near her. While swimming at the Fall River pool, Joseph and the boy ride down a slide, first him and then her, into the water. The boy gets out of the water but Joseph does not.

Monday, June 27 — Fall River health inspectors drive past Veteran’s Memorial Pool and notice the pool is open to the public, although it has not been inspected by their department and permitted as required.

Tuesday, June 28, noon — A health inspector inspects the pool and returns to his office to prepare the permit. His report indicates the pool is fine other than cloudy water. He approves and prints the permit but never brings it to the pool. Yesterday, the permit remained at the Fall River municipal building.

Tuesday, June 28, 4 p.m. — The pool closes early.

Tuesday, June 28, 10:08 p.m. — The body of Marie Joseph is found floating in the pool by a girl and a boy in their late teens or early 20s who scaled the chain-link fence surrounding the swimming area.

Wednesday, June 29, 5:30 p.m. — State recreation officials close all 24 of the department’s deep-water pools across Massachusetts to “conduct a full review of each facility’s safety and operational procedures,” according to DCR Commissioner Edward M. Lambert Jr.

Thursday, June 30 — Two city inspectors are placed on paid administrative leave by Fall River Mayor William A. Flanagan while police lead an investigation to try to determine what happened, including the review of video surveillance tapes.

1 Reply

@wandeljw,

Very strange....but I have faith that CSI will get to the bottom of this..

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@wayne,

wayne wrote:

Some kids found her in the dark, but no one could see her in the daylight?

Good point wayne.

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Chai seems to know quite a bit about the physics of dead bodies underwater. Anyone else suspicious?

1 Reply

But I digress. With respect to the quality of the water itself, public pools can be no worse than your area lake or river. I grew up on Lake Michigan, and on half of my trips to the beach I would be met with a sign warning people not to submerge their heads.

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@chai2,

Not to freak out gargamel and all, yes a drowning victim always sinks first. The lungs fill with water and the weight of the human body is denser than fresh water. However, after a few days, the body produces gases that will cause a body to rise and float.

1 Reply

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