'It's a killing machine:' Body of 23-year-old recovered after drowning in Westmoreland County
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - A Penn Hills family is in mourning after a man drowned at Creek Falls on Jacob's Creek in Westmoreland County this weekend. It marks the fourth time someone died there since 2011, and authorities want to send a message to families.
First responders were called to respond to the swimming spot in South Huntingdon Township at 5:45 p.m. Saturday for a man who jumped from a rock into the water and didn't resurface.
The Greensburg Fire Department Dive Team, and Murrysville Medic One Dive Team, with fire crews from Collinsburg, Turkeytown, Dalton, and Donora, responded.
Captain George McFarland of the Greensburg Dive Team said they searched through the night Saturday until 11 p.m. and then Sunday morning starting at 8 a.m. Shortly after 11 a.m., one of their divers recovered the man's body.
Westmoreland County Coroner Tim Carson identified the man as 23-year-old Deonte Johns from Penn Hills.
"Don't go there. It's a killing machine," McFarland said. "A lot of people go, and a lot of people have near-drowning accidents or drowning accidents."
McFarland said kids like to go to the falls because it's secluded and there's no admission, but despite how pretty it may be, he urges them and their parents to stop swimming there.
"It's just a shame that this happened, didn't have to happen," McFarland said.
The circumstances behind Johns' death remain unclear, but McFarland said the conditions aren't great between the current and the terrain, saying it's possible Johns struck something, jumping from a 25-foot cliff into 15 to 19 feet of water.
"You have jagged rocks at the bottom, you have flat rocks at the bottom, there [are] tree trunks down there and tree limbs, so you could have hit a multitude of items," McFarland said.
Just accessing the falls can take 30 to 35 minutes from the main road.
"You're going through three, four feet of water, alright, in order to get back there. There [are] ruts, all kinds of rocks. These ATVs that we had our equipment in were tipping side to side, up and down," McFarland said.
At this point, McFarland wishes the spot was gone altogether.
"If I had a Father's Day present for today, somebody can go in there and fill that place up right now," McFarland said. "To eliminate that problem, fill it up with gravel, fill it up with stone, or let the water run out, run over it, so that you can't swim there and drown there. It's that serious."
A cause of death remains under investigation pending final autopsy and toxicology results.