Search and rescue teams are scouring Lake Eloise in Winter Haven for a 23-year-old man who jumped off a boat and never resurfaced.
It's not something Cynthia Downing ever imagined her nephew, Hence Trey Williams III, would do.
“What happened? Were they horse playing? Were they thinking that he could swim? I don’t know what it was,” Downing said.
Polk County sheriff's detectives say they got a call around 7 p.m. on Thursday that Williams had jumped off a boat and had difficulty swimming. Witnesses say they tried to help but Williams went under and never resurfaced.
“The only thing I’m going through now is seeing him struggle," Williams said. "Seeing him struggle. That hurts.”
His aunt said it just doesn’t make sense.
Lake Eloise is as deep as 130 plus feet in some spots. Which doesn’t make sense to this family because they said Williams would never get into water where his feet couldn’t touch the ground.
“If he did jump out there, he may have it just pass the common sense test to any of us that know him,” she said.
Friday afternoon the family was left to sit on the edge of a nearby lake, waiting and hoping search crews would recover Williams’ body.
Crews searched late afternoon and were back out again early Friday morning.