Man recovered from family pond near Townville Tuesday
TOWNVILLE — Search teams on Tuesday afternoon recovered the body of a Crawford County man who disappeared in a family-owned pond on Monday following about 10 hours of scouring the water over two days.
Crawford County Coroner Scott Schell identified the man as James C. Warden, 44. He said Warden died of drowning and ruled the death as accidental.
Warden’s body was found on Tuesday at about 1:10 p.m. in a pond on his family’s property in the 37100 block of Tryonville Road in Steuben Township, Crawford County, according to Lt. Mark Weindorf, crime section supervisor for Pennsylvania State Police Troop E. The property is located northeast of Townville and southwest of Centerville.
According to Schell and Weindorf, a family member of Warden’s witnessed him enter the pond on Monday afternoon to swim. Warden made it partway across the body of water before he disappeared, they said.
State police were called to the residence on Monday at 5:53 p.m., Weindorf said.
Members of the Crawford County Scuba Team, the Blooming Valley Volunteer Fire Department and the Christian Ministries Scuba Team searched the roughly 4-acre lake on Monday night but were unable to locate Warden. The search was suspended on Monday at about 11 p.m., Weindorf said.
The search resumed on Tuesday at about 8 a.m. and involved the Pennsylvania Search and Rescue Team, Weindorf said. The team did a grid search of the lake using sonar, he said. The team located the body and the Crawford County Scuba Team was called back to the property to recover the body, Weindorf said.
Contact Tim Hahn at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @ETNhahn.