A Citrus County teenager drowned Monday while diving with friends off the Hernando County coast.
Cody Bilbery-Nickless and his friends were about 17 miles off the coast when the sheriff's office said he dove in and didn't come back up for air.
His friends quickly found him and gave him CPR, but it was too late. The Hernando teen was pronounced dead a short while later at Seven Rivers Regional Medical Center.
Bilbery-Nickless recently graduated from Citrus House School. The school released the following statement today:
"If you knew Cody, you loved him. He was a remarkable young man, a role model for his peers with an extraordinary gift of bringing happiness to all those he encountered."
Bilbery-Nickless had recently been accepted into the Navy's prestigious nuclear field program and was counting down the days until basic training.
Officials said autopsy results are pending, and that foul play is not suspected.