Swimmers used public pool for days while body of drowned woman in the pool went undetected

**Jenna** · 06-30-11, 11:19 PM

Authorities say the body of a woman who died in a Massachusetts public pool went undetected for days as swimmers continued to use the pool before the victim was found floating. The body of Marie Joseph, 36, was discovered by teenagers Tuesday evening in the Vietnam Veterans Swimming Pool in Fall River, Massachusetts, according to Bristol County district attorney's spokesman Gregg Miliote.
Joseph had gone to the pool on Sunday with a 9-year-old neighbor and his family. She collided with the boy while the pair careened down a pool slide, Miliote said.
After the collision, the boy surfaced but the woman did not, he said.
It was not clear Thursday what happened after the collision or whether the boy and his family sought Joseph's whereabouts when they left the pool.

More here: Authorities say body found in public pool went undetected for days - CNN.com

**lewisipso** · 07-01-11, 09:17 AM

Good grief.

**mack** · 07-01-11, 10:26 AM

I saw this on the news and wondered how something like this could happen. Reports said they closed off the deep end because the water was cloudy. Ewwwww!

**irishmick** · 07-01-11, 10:31 AM

If she'd gone with a neighbor boy and his family, weren't they concerned/worried/wondering when she didn't go home with them?

**Broke Hoss** · 07-01-11, 02:20 PM

Was that water as dirty as a stock tank? Lifeguards don't see a body in it? What about cleaning it out at night? And the family that was there with her don't miss her?

This is just weird...

**Standard Dave** · 07-01-11, 02:46 PM

If you can't see a body in a pool after closing time either the lifeguards need glasses or the pool needs a better water filter.

I'm also left confused as to how that could happen.

**luckyme** · 07-01-11, 08:22 PM

Sounds like there's a LOT more to this story.

**10-42Adam** · 07-01-11, 09:05 PM

This is very weird but I know one thing; I wouldn't step foot into a pool so cloudy that you can't even spot a body in it!

**Jenna** · 07-02-11, 09:25 AM

Wonder what made the pool so cloudy. Hope it wasn't other bodies....

**Jks9199** · 07-02-11, 12:17 PM

Originally Posted by Standard Dave

If you can't see a body in a pool after closing time either the lifeguards need glasses or the pool needs a better water filter.

I'm also left confused as to how that could happen.

Add me to the confused list. Weren't they cleaning the pool regularly? Way back when, the rule was you close the pool if you can't see the bottom.

**Ducky** · 07-02-11, 01:13 PM

I get the creeping skeevies from swimming with a dead frog in the pool....

**Xiphos** · 07-02-11, 11:14 PM

You know what this means? Nobody cleans that pool. Yuuuuuuuk!

**Five-0** · 07-02-11, 11:46 PM

I'm betting this happened right after or shortly after a rain. Probably the night before. The chemicals were off and it makes the pool water foggy. It needed to be shocked with granular chlorine.

**A3148** · 07-03-11, 12:15 AM

Even if the pool was cloudy I just don't see how you miss a body in there.. I think from now on I would swim at a diffrent pool.

**Jks9199** · 07-03-11, 10:14 AM

Originally Posted by Five-0

I'm betting this happened right after or shortly after a rain. Probably the night before. The chemicals were off and it makes the pool water foggy. It needed to be shocked with granular chlorine.

For two or three days? Like I said -- it's been a while, but the rule I recall for pools is "if you can't see the bottom, the pool is closed." And, around here, the pool chemical levels are tested several times a day. This wasn't someone's backyard pool... this was a (apparently rather heavily used!) public pool.

I don't get how they didn't notice anything for days... Of course, I also wonder at friends or family not reporting that she hadn't been seen for days.

**Five-0** · 07-03-11, 10:48 AM

Didn't say it was right Jks. I life guarded in high school and we had the same rule of if you can't see every part of the pool from the perches it is closed. Another guy and I handled the chemicals and the pools were tested in the morning and the evening. In the four years I did that the only thing that get the chemicals out of wack were huge down pours at night. If this city or whatever cut the budget for keeping the pool up to standards for chemicals or staffing they are going to get rightfully destroyed in the courts.

**MacLean** · 07-03-11, 06:40 PM

Saw another article where the PD did a quick test - could not see a diver four feet under.

**MacLean** · 07-03-11, 06:40 PM

Originally Posted by Jenna

Wonder what made the pool so cloudy. Hope it wasn't other bodies....

Unwashed people.

**Jks9199** · 07-03-11, 08:47 PM

Originally Posted by Five-0

Didn't say it was right Jks. I life guarded in high school and we had the same rule of if you can't see every part of the pool from the perches it is closed. Another guy and I handled the chemicals and the pools were tested in the morning and the evening. In the four years I did that the only thing that get the chemicals out of wack were huge down pours at night. If this city or whatever cut the budget for keeping the pool up to standards for chemicals or staffing they are going to get rightfully destroyed in the courts.

Around here... the problem would be lifeguards that don't speak English.

We've got massive unemployment -- but the pool companies still get to sponsor Eastern European kids to come over and lifeguard. Current crop is OK; mostly Serbian. But some years? I don't know what they'd have done if they needed to call 911. I don't know that they had enough English ability to order a pizza successfully.