By Evan Goodenow
The News-Sentinel
FORT WAYNE, Ind. — Little boys aren’t supposed to drown and parents aren’t supposed to bury their children.
But life is not a movie or television show and rescuers rarely make last-second saves.
Those who tried to save 4-year-old Kendal Lumpkin and his 9-year-old half brother Cody Mann know this and that they did their best, but it doesn’t make it any easier. The boys will be buried Saturday, but memories of them and the way they died Monday will linger forever, both for their parents and their would-be rescuers.
“We’ll all carry this to our graves,” said fire Capt. Bob Trabel, one of the firefighters who tried to save the boys.
Melissa Morrill, the boys’ mother, said she has done nothing but cry since their deaths. “I’m emotionally and physically drained,” she said, adding that she was relying on friends, family and the community to help her cope.
Tamara Dominguez, who has lived in the apartment building closest to the river for about two years, said she had seen the boys playing and walking by the river several times and Morrill was always with them. Police said Morrill told them she never let the boys out of her sight, but on Sunday night she let the boys out to play while she cooked dinner. Morrill called police at 6:52 p.m. Sunday when she couldn’t find her boys and firefighters responded for a water rescue at 8:05 p.m.
The boys apparently walked about 250 yards to the rear of the complex, the site of a playground and swingset. Some 30 yards away is the St. Marys River where they drowned.
According to Conservation Officer Rodney Clear of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, which is leading the investigation into the boys’ drowning, interviews were still being conducted as of Wednesday. Child Protective Services is conducting its own investigation, which is routine in child deaths.
Children the boys’ ages frequently play on the rivers when they’re frozen despite the dangers, Trabel said. The circumstances of the drowning aren’t unusual, according to the National SAFE KIDS Campaign, which found nearly 9 out of 10 children up to age 14 drowned under supervision. The April 2004 study defined supervision as being in someone’s care, not necessarily in direct line of sight.
“We all went through that when we were kids. We all did the same thing, but we were fortunate enough to survive it,” said Trabel, who used the opportunity to warn parents: make sure your children stay clear from rivers and unsupervised bodies of water this time of year.
Drownings are rare for the Fort Wayne Fire Department Water Rescue/Recovery Team, which usually is called to recover everything from cars to guns. When Capt. Brandt Douglas, a member of the team since 2001, stepped into the river Sunday it was only the second time he had searched for a person. The first ended with the recovery of a man who drowned. Brandt wore an anti-exposure suit and spent about 10 minutes in the freezing water with a rope attached to him, moving in a sweeping manner as he searched for Kendal. Police Officer Clinton Hill had earlier pulled a lifeless Cody out of the river.
Douglas found Kendal in water about 4 feet deep. “I was feeling around with my feet, and that’s how I found them,” Douglas said.
Children can survive far longer than adults underwater — in rare cases, for over an hour — because their bodies go into sort of a hibernation, said Battalion Chief Ron Meikle, who oversaw the rescue attempt. “We were hopeful we could witness our own miracle right here in Fort Wayne,” he said.
Latasha Jackson watched rescuers carry the boys up from the embankment and a hysterical Morrill rush to them. Cody attended Harrison Hill Academy with Jackson’s 9-year-old son Tarockus.
“For anyone to lose their child, it’s devastating,” Jackson said. “My heart goes out to her.”
Copyright 2008 The News-Sentinel