A teenager who couldn’t swim and hated water drowned in a reservoir after his friends thought he was ‘joking’ when he started waving for help, an inquest heard.
Tyrese Johnson, 16, got into difficulty as he was out with friends on the last day of school at Lodge Farm Reservoir, in Netherton, Dudley, West Midlands, on July 23.
Rescue teams launched a major search operation but his body was recovered from the water by police divers at around 11.30am the following day.
An inquest heard how a brave paddle boarder desperately tried in vain to find the teen by diving under the surface for 40 minutes.
One friend said in a statement he saw Tyrese waving but initially thought he was joking before he disappeared beneath the surface at around 6pm.
The boy told how the water had been shallow but then suddenly the floor dropped off ‘like a cliff edge’ into deep water.
He said the group of friends had been in the water for just three minutes when Tyrese got into difficulty and they tried desperately to pull him out but couldn’t.
Tyrese’s parents said in their statement he had been afraid of water and ‘never wanted to go to swimming lessons or go into the pool when on family holidays’.
It added his mother Michelle is ‘broken-hearted’ and can’t make sense of life without ‘her baby’.
‘The hardest part is there’s no answers as to why he was in the water,’ they said.
Paying tribute, they added: ‘Tyrese was a very quiet and caring young man loved by his family…he looked like an angel and was an angel in his ways.’
Black Country Coroners Court heard how there were people swimming, paddleboarding and fishing at the spot as the country basked in a heatwave
Paddleboarder James Birks told how he desperately tried to save the teen, who lived in Quarry Bank, Dudley.
Mr Birks said in a written statement: ‘I could see six or seven lads on the edge of water – three were in the water and it looked like they were having a laugh like lads do.
‘Then the tone changed and I realised someone was struggling.’
He said he heard people shouting ‘he’s drowning’ and paddled over, diving into the water to the point where Tyrese should have been but the water was muggy.
He tried for around 30 to 40 minutes to find Tyrese until police came and told him to get out at which point he was ‘exhausted’.
Mr Birks said: ‘I wish I could have done more to help.’
Tyrese’s stepfather Lawrence Kavanagh questioned whether there were life preservers, prompting the coroner to say she would write to the council to ask about this and whether they could be placed at locations around the perimeter.
Joanne Lees, Area Coroner for the Black Country, said Dudley Council is ‘reviewing to see if there are further measures they can take’ to make the reservoir site safer.
She recorded a verdict of accidental death by drowning.
In a tribute released previously, his family said: ‘Tyrese, words can’t describe what you meant to us as a family, your loving devoted mom, your brother, dad, your niece and nephew.
‘You were a kind loving young man with a heart full of gold. Your warm, gentle, kind hearted soul, simply irreplaceable.’