A 30-year-old man drowned in a pool at a Morgan Hill hotel
Monday afternoon, although the original call reported an elderly
woman as the victim.
Morgan Hill
A 30-year-old man drowned in a pool at a Morgan Hill hotel Monday afternoon, although the original call reported an elderly woman as the victim.
John Harold Wakefield, Jr., of Twin Falls, Idaho, had a bone disease and was in a wheelchair, according to Morgan Hill police Sgt. Jerry Neumayer. It was not clear how long Wakefield was in the water before he was found at approximately 5 p.m. by two guests of the Residence Inn who walked by the pool.
Once the guests spotted Wakefield and his wheelchair in the pool, they alerted the front desk clerk, who was able to pull him from the pool and begin CPR.
“It may have been an accident,” Neumayer said.
The case is still under investigation, he added.
The Times incorrectly reported in Tuesday’s edition that an elderly woman had drowned. Police dispatchers gave the incorrect gender of the victim to officers on the police band radio because callers who reported the drowning initially believed that Wakefield was an elderly woman. The callers may have assumed he was an elderly woman because his body appeared small and shrunken due to the bone disease, according to police.
MHPD officers were investigating the incident and unable to comment before presstime.
Police and rescue personnel arrived at the hotel minutes later, but paramedics were unable to revive him, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Wakefield had been staying at the inn, which is located on Madrone Parkway in the business park in north Morgan Hill, for several days, Neumayer said. He and his parents stayed at the inn periodically, but his parents were away at the time.
Neumayer said there was no one at the pool at the time of the apparent accident, and Wakefield was not wearing swimming trunks but regular clothing.
A representative of the Santa Clara County Coroner’s Office confirmed Wakefield’s identity but said the office cannot release the cause of death. Investigators will not know for sure if alcohol or drugs were involved in his death until toxicology results are released, which could take six to eight weeks to complete.
