Two Men Dead Following Castlewood-Meramec Drowning

Editor's Note: This article was last updated at 4:52 p.m.

Two men died early Tuesday as the result of a swimming accident in the Meramec River at Castlewood State Park in Ballwin, police and fire authorities said.

Metro West Fire Department Chief Vincent Loyal said that at 11:22 a.m., emergency responders received a call for a water rescue at the park. When they arrived, the emergency personnel determined that they were looking for two people, who couldn't be located by their two friends. All four of the men were co-workers in their late teens or early 20s who reside in south St. Louis, Loyal said.

"[They] came to Castlewood State Park shortly before they became missing just for the intent of having fun and playing in the water," Loyal said.

After noticing that their two friends were missing, the other two males quickly yelled to a fisherman, who then called for help from a cell phone.

"So all indications that we have is that it didn't take a long time for help to be requested and we were on the scene very, very quickly."

Loyal said emergency personnel initiated diving operations, ground-based operations and boat operations, which included assistance from several local fire departments.

At 12:37 p.m., one of the swimmers was located by the divers and pronounced dead. At about 3:20 p.m., members of the Missouri Water Patrol had used a sonar device that located the second swimmer, also dead, about 50 yards from where the first victim was found.

Loyal said the location of the victims was close to the area where previous drowning-victims were recovered. Still, Loyal said, it's unlikely that extra safety measures will be applied to the site of the accident.

"I guess I would caution anyone that the beach as a swimming area is not patrolled by lifeguards. It's a very attractive area, but please use common sense. If you're not a strong swimmer, stay out of the water."

Sack said the water depth near the incident site was approximately 15 feet, which is a typical depth down from higher levels earlier this summer, he added.

Loyal suggested that fluxuating water levels may have played a role in the incident, in addition to sometimes deceptive-looking conditions.

“We know that the Meramec River has a very uneven river bottom,” Loyal said. "The water, although at the surface appears to be very calm, can be treacherous, and ... we've been notified that apparently the swimmers were not strong swimmers."

"The river right now if you look at it is very serene. It almost looks like a lake," Loyal said. "You can't imagine that there'd be a hazard, but in fact it's an extremely attractive hazard."

Sack said as of about 3:30 p.m., the family of one of the victims had been notified, while notification of the other family still was pending.

Loyal said the last time a drowning occurred at Castlewood was in the summer of 2007, when a man from New York state died. Before that, five children died on July 9, 2006 in a drowning accident near the park grounds.