Body Recovered from Hellyer Park Lake

A body was recovered Sunday from Cottonwood Lake at Hellyer County Park in San Jose after park rangers received a report of a person in distress in the water, according to the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff’s deputies, the San Jose Fire Department and the county’s dive team responded to the lake in the south San Jose park, authorities said. (abc7news.com) The person was pronounced dead after search crews recovered the body from the water, local news outlets reported, citing the sheriff’s office. The identity of the dead person had not been released as of Monday, May 18. (mercurynews.com) ### When did the emergency call come in? Santa Clara County park rangers were alerted at about 1:40 p.m. Sunday to a report of a person in distress in Cottonwood Lake, according to the sheriff’s office as cited by the Mercury News and NBC Bay Area. (mercurynews.com) CBS Bay Area reported the call came a little after 1:30 p.m., also citing the sheriff’s office. Authorities did not publicly explain the discrepancy in the initial time reports. Hellyer County Park is in San Jose, and Cottonwood Lake is one of the park’s water features. The emergency response centered on that lake Sunday afternoon. (abc7news.com) ### Which agencies searched the lake? The Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office said sheriff’s deputies responded along with the San Jose Fire Department after the report came in. The sheriff’s office Dive Team and Underwater Search Unit were then called to search the lake, NBC Bay Area reported. ABC7 reported the sheriff’s office described the death as an apparent drowning. SFGATE, citing the same agency, reported that rescue crews recovered the body after a search of the lake. (mercurynews.com) ### What do authorities know about how the person entered the water? The sheriff’s office said it was unclear why the person was in the lake, according to CBS Bay Area. (abc7news.com) The Mercury News similarly reported that investigators were working to determine why the person entered the water. No public statement reviewed Monday identified the dead person by name, age or hometown. No public statement reviewed Monday said whether anyone witnessed the person entering the water. (nbcbayarea.com) ### Has the death been formally identified? The name of the deceased had not yet been confirmed in reporting published Sunday and Monday, the Mercury News reported. (abc7news.com) ABC7 also said the sheriff’s office had not released the person’s identity. Santa Clara County’s Medical Examiner-Coroner maintains a public cases dataset that is updated nightly and includes deaths under its jurisdiction from January 1, 2018 to the present. (cbsnews.com) As of the latest dataset description available Monday, the office said records are updated nightly, which is typically where formal identification and cause-and-manner findings later appear. (abc7news.com) ### What happens next in the investigation? An autopsy is pending, according to the Mercury News. That examination is expected to determine the cause and manner of death, while sheriff’s investigators continue reviewing how the person came to be in the water. (mercurynews.com) The next public update is likely to come from the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office or the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-Coroner, whose case records are updated nightly. As of Monday, May 18, neither office had publicly identified the person in the reports reviewed. (mercurynews.com) (data.sccgov.org)