“We had a great time back then,” said Christine Lucarelli, 18, one of his cousins.
On Thursday, Lucas apparently jumped off the pond’s wooden dock — just as he did years ago — around 2:45 p.m. Nearly five hours later, his body was pulled out of the water by divers from the Butler County Sheriff’s Office Task Force One.
Middletown Deputy Fire Chief Paul Lolli said the body was recovered 55 feet from the dock in 18 feet of water.
Divers searched the pond section by section, focusing on the dock area where sonar detected an object in the water, Lolli said.
Once located, Lolli said it took about 10 minutes to bring the body to the surface.
Earlier in the afternoon, Lucas, along with his wife of three years Tonya Metcalf, her three children, her grandson and a niece were enjoying the Smith Park Splash Pad. That’s when Lucas, a house painter who had been drinking alcohol, his family said, told them he was going to his car to get a cigarette.
Instead, he walked down the grassy hill toward Smith Pond.
Two boys, Terry Hatton, 12, a seventh-grader at Vail Middle School, and Jacob McKinney, 11, a fifth-grader at Rosa Parks Elementary, said they were fishing near the dock when Lucas told them he was going to jump in the pond and swim to the other side, like he did years ago. There are “No Swimming” signs posted.
The boys said Lucas — wearing shorts, no shirt and was barefoot — swam about 20 feet from the dock before turning around, when the boys said he screamed “Go get help! Go get help!” before going under and not coming back up.
Lucas’ stepson, Kenneth Miller, 18, said he walked to the pond and was shocked to see Lucas struggling in the water. He ran back to the splash pad and told someone to call 911.
“It doesn’t feel like this really happened,” Miller said. “You look around and you see all this stuff (rescue personnel and media) and it just doesn’t seem real.”
When Middletown police arrived, an officer put on a life jacket and jumped into the water near the dock, but was unable to locate Lucas because of the murky water, Lolli said.
While water rescue teams from Franklin and Butler County searched for Lucas’ body, his family sat on several picnic tables, under a large tree, just inside the police warning tape.
As news spread of the possible drowning, the crowd grew, and at one point, the entire pond was lined with spectators, some sitting in folding chairs.
During the frantic search, as family members consoled each other, the sound of kids playing in the splash pad were heard as skydivers drifted to the ground at nearby Hook Field.
According to statistics from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2007 there were 3,443 fatal unintentional drownings in the U.S. Nearly 80 percent of fatal drowning victims are male.
When Lucas’ body was discovered, though, the mood around the pond quickly shifted. You could only hear family members crying as his body was pulled from the water, later identified, then turned over to the Butler County Coroner’s Office, where an autopsy is planned today.
His wife, her face tear-stained, was escorted to a vehicle and she refused further comment.
His older brother, Thomas Lucas, 44, said: “They should not go that young,” as he was getting into a vehicle and driving away.
Before her husband’s body was recovered, family members described Lucas as someone who struggled with alcoholism, but a man who “loved to make people happy,” his wife said.
Middletown police said an open bottle of alcohol was found in Lucas’ automobile, but police said it has not been determined whether alcohol was a factor in the incident.
Lucas’ aunt Bonnie Cunningham, said her nephew had “a big heart with a lot of love.”
Then Lucarelli added: “He’d give you the shirt off his back, his last bite of food.”
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