07-01-2011, 06:16 PM
The 36-year-old Fall River woman found floating in a local, state-owned public pool Tuesday night died as a result of an accidental drowning on Sunday afternoon and had remained submerged for nearly three days in water already murky just 24 hours after the pool opened for the summer season, prosecutors revealed today.
An autopsy of Marie Joseph found she died of “asphyxiation by drowning” and that her body had remained at the bottom of the 12-foot deep end of the Veteran’s Memorial Pool in Fall River until it rose to the surface Tuesday evening as a result of “natural post-mortem changes of the human body,” (BLOATING) according to a statement released by Bristol District Attorney C. Samuel Sutter.
“The investigation thus far establishes that the water in the pool was murky and cloudy from the time the pool opened for the season on Saturday, June 25th until the pool was closed by the pool staff on Tuesday afternoon,” Sutter said. “Visibility tests conducted with a police diver on Wednesday, June 29th, revealed that a submerged diver could not be seen at a depth of three-and-a-half to four feet below the surface of the water at the pool’s deep end.”
An autopsy of Marie Joseph found she died of “asphyxiation by drowning” and that her body had remained at the bottom of the 12-foot deep end of the Veteran’s Memorial Pool in Fall River until it rose to the surface Tuesday evening as a result of “natural post-mortem changes of the human body,” (BLOATING) according to a statement released by Bristol District Attorney C. Samuel Sutter.
“The investigation thus far establishes that the water in the pool was murky and cloudy from the time the pool opened for the season on Saturday, June 25th until the pool was closed by the pool staff on Tuesday afternoon,” Sutter said. “Visibility tests conducted with a police diver on Wednesday, June 29th, revealed that a submerged diver could not be seen at a depth of three-and-a-half to four feet below the surface of the water at the pool’s deep end.”