18 Year Old Swimmer Dies After Drowning in Quarry Two

(KNSI) – A search for a missing swimmer at Quarry Park that began around 8:00 Saturday night has come to a sad end.

The Stearns County Sheriff’s Office says 18-year-old Zakariya Aden Odowa jumped off the floating dock at Quarry Two feet and never resurfaced. The other swimmers Odowa was with say he had no swimming experience.

Waite Park Fire and Mayo Ambulance responded to the scene, along with the Stearns/Benton Dive Team. Boats were deployed by the Waite Park Fire Department and the Stearns County Sheriff’s Office before the dive team arrived, but they were unsuccessful.

A diver entered the water a short time later and quickly recovered Odowa’s body in roughly 25 feet of water.
He was taken to shore, where life-saving efforts began. Odowa was rushed to the St. Cloud Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Odowa was one of at least three people who drowned over the weekend. A father playing with his kids in the St. Croix River at a Washington County Park, and a toddler died after they were pulled from a pond in Ham Lake.

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