Details Emerge In Lake Elsinore Drowning Case

According to a Lake Elsinore Police Department report provided to the Riverside County Coroner’s Office, Lulu Sibisi, 35, was not wearing a life vest when she was found in the lake Friday afternoon, Sgt. R. Escobar of the coroner’s office confirmed.

The Moreno Valley woman was pulled from the water near Lake Elsinore Marina & RV Resort located at 32700 Riverside Drive around 4:30 p.m. and was transported to Inland Valley Medical Center in Wildomar where she was pronounced dead at 5:19 p.m. Friday, per the coroner’s report.

Lake Elsinore Marina & RV Resort is a privately owned facility. There are signs posted warning of the water's dangers: Lake Elsinore is a no-swim lake, but wading is allowed in a few shallow, designated areas, including in part of the Marina's shoreline. The wading zone is west of the Marina's boat dock area and boating channel.

According to Lake Elsinore Marina & RV Resort manager Kevin Yardley, the woman was with her three children, all of whom were wearing life vests. The family, believed to be from Africa, had a day-use pass, Yardley said, and the kids were wading.

Chris Boyer owns Elsinore West Watersports. His company rents jet skies, kayaks and stand-up paddle boards from the Marina's shoreline. From his rental facility, Boyer watched Friday as Sibisi's children drifted into the deep-water boating channel. He said the usual afternoon wind was blowing, and it can quickly carry unsuspecting boaters and waders.

Although it's not his job to act as lifeguard, Boyer hopped on a jet ski and moved the children out of danger, and said Sibisi had waded waist-deep into the water in an effort to retrieve her children.

Sibisi thanked Boyer for saving the kids because she told him, "I can't swim," he remembered.

The family was in a safe area when Boyer got busy working on a boat parked away from the shoreline. However, a man from a neighboring beach watched as the children again drifted into danger. The man, who Patch has not identified, jumped in the lake to retrieve them, Boyer and Yardley say.

According to Boyer and Yardley, it's believed the kids drifted out at least into the channel, if not further.

What is known for certain is that Sibisi went in after them again and drowned.

Lead Investigator Tony Pelato of the Lake Elsinore Sheriff's Station has been involved in the case and was on the lake Saturday afternoon. He said the woman had a paddle board and her children tried to save her.

Ultimately it was a Good Samaritan passing by in a boat who came upon the scene and pulled everyone out of the water. According to Yardley, the boater told him he spotted one of the children, crying out for help, holding on to the woman's arm as she was underwater.

Everyone was quickly transported to shore and the woman was attended to by Cal Fire. First-responders were able to get a pulse on the woman before she was transported, Pelato said, but she was pronounced dead at the hospital.

“It’s such a shame. This could have been avoided,” Yardley said, noting that a life vest could have saved the woman's life.

There are signs posted around the lake. At the Marina, a large sign warns of steep drop-offs in the natural lake, and waders are advised to wear life vests.

“There are signs everywhere,” Yardley said.

Yardley has worked in management for the Marina since 2007 and he said this is the first drowning incident at his facility, although he pointed out that in 2011 a family launched a boat from the Marina and the outing ended tragically with one drowning death. Click here for more on that story.

Lake Elsinore Mayor Bob Magee called Friday’s incident “tragic.”

“It’s a sad day for our city,” he said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the children.”

Magee’s wife Gina spearheads Trauma Intervention Program. TIP volunteers were called to the scene Friday to assist, the mayor said.

According to Pelato, Child Protective Service has taken custody of the kids, whose father and grandparents were out of the country Friday.