London teen drowns, 12-year old rescued, at Ipperwash Beach

CBC News

· Posted: Jul 01, 2025 10:33 AM EDT | Last Updated: July 1

Police accidental an 18-year-old from London drowned at Ipperwash Beach connected Monday day moments aft a 12-year-old was rescued by bystanders. 

It happened astatine astir 4 p.m. connected Monday connected the conception of Ipperwash Beach astir halfway betwixt Ipperwash Road and Army Camp Road.

Police say the 12-year-old had drifted distant from enactment portion utilizing a floatation device. An 18-year-old went retired into the h2o to assistance and radical connected the formation noticed some were in distress. Bystanders were capable to bring the 12-year-old backmost to enactment and exigency crews were called. 

After a hunt involving boats and pitchy skis, the 18-year-old was recovered and pulled from the water, but was unresponsive. Witnesses who spoke to CBC News accidental the 18-year-old is simply a miss and the 12-year-old a boy. 

'I consciousness truthful bad' says witness

Mya McGowan was connected the formation erstwhile it happened and said it took immoderate clip for the 18-year-old to beryllium recovered aft the lad was rescued. 

"After astir 15 oregon 20 minutes of searching, they recovered the miss and brought her backmost of the main motortruck and they were doing compressions for astir 15 minutes, CPR," she said. "They were doing that for rather a while. They drove down towards the vessel motorboat portion doing it and that's the past happening that we saw until they pulled away.

"I consciousness truthful bad, truthful terrible," said McGowan. "It's precise upsetting to cognize that it was an 18-year-old miss and she had truthful overmuch of her beingness left."

Jeff Hill came to the formation from a adjacent cottage portion the hunt was underway. He said conditions connected the h2o were calm astatine the clip and that the formation wasn't crowded. 

"There wasn't a batch of radical connected the h2o and nary 1 saw it until atrocious things happened," helium said. 

The agencies progressive successful the rescue included the Lambton County Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), Anishinabek Police Service, Lambton County Emergency Medical Services and Lambton Shores Fire and Emergency Services.

An OPP spokesperson said they would not beryllium releasing the sanction of the idiosyncratic who died, lone saying that they are from London.

"Our thoughts are with the household and everyone impacted by this tragic incident," said OPP Const. Jeanine Robertson. 

It's already been a atrocious summertime for drownings connected the Great Lakes successful the London area. 

A 35-year-old Woodstock antheral drowned portion swimming astatine Port Burwell connected Lake Erie connected June 22.

A time later, a kid was rescued from Lake Huron adjacent Goderich after drifting acold from enactment portion connected an inflatable device.