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A Fort Wayne man apparently drowned after diving into Pike Lake Sunday evening and possibly suffering a neck injury.
Terry W. Loop, 50, was pulled from the lake shortly before 5 p.m. Sunday. Witnesses told authorities that Loop was under water for at least 15 minutes before he was discovered.
Ptl. Scott Whitaker of the Warsaw Police Department was the first emergency person on the scene and he began CPR until an ambulance crew arrived at the scene. Loop had been pulled from the water by two other men at the beach and he was on a branch of the pier to the north of the main pier.
Once Multi-Township Emergency Medical Service personnel arrived, CPR was continued and Loop, who was unresponsive, was taken to Kosciusko Community Hospital with no signs of life. Kosciusko County Coroner Larry Ladd pronounced Loop dead at KCH.
A witness to the incident, a 15-year-old girl who was with Loop from Fort Wayne, told police that Loop jumped backwards off the north side of the pier, just west of the branched-off pier, and entered the water head first.
The teen-ager told police that she saw Loop surface and throw his arms over his head several times before sinking back into the water, with bubbles appearing as he went down. She said she thought he was joking because he had done that sort of thing before.
She didn't see him again until he was pulled from the water after she realized he wasn't around and the other people at the lake were helping her look for him. Police noted that the area where the girl said Loop entered the water was relatively shallow.
An abrasion on Loop's head raises the suspicion of a possible neck injury, according to a WPD report. Ladd said that a cause of death is expected to be determined today during an autopsy at St. Joseph Medical Center, Fort Wayne.
