NEWS

UIndy basketball player Dai-Jon Parker identified as Morse Reservoir drowning victim

Michael Anthony Adams, and Madeline Buckley
UIndy basketball player Dai-Jon Parker has been identified as Thursday's Morse Reservoir drowning victim.

Update: The University of Indianapolis and law enforcement have identified senior basketball player Dai-Jon Parker, 22, of Lawrenceville, Ga., as the student who drowned in Morse Reservoir Thursday.

"The entire University of Indianapolis community mourns the loss of Dai-Jon Parker, a senior student-athlete with a vibrant personality who had a great future ahead," the school said in a statement. "This is a tragic situation for everyone involved, and UIndy is offering counseling and support to the people closest to him. Please keep Dai-Jon's family, friends and teammates in your thoughts and prayers."

Earlier:

The body of a 22-year-old man was pulled out of the Morse Reservoir Thursday evening after the victim was reported to have gone under the water without a life-jacket.

Units from the Cicero Fire Department, Noblesville Fire Department and the Department of Natural Resources were dispatched to Morse Reservoir in Cicero, near the 1300 block of Lighthouse Point, to search for a drowning victim. Officials said the 911 call was made after a man went under the water and never resurfaced.

Witnesses who were with the man before he vanished underwater told investigators that they were pulling him and another man behind a pontoon boat on an inner-tube when they hit a large wave that threw both the men off the inflated tube into the water.

When the occupants of the boat couldn't find the other man, they called police, and rescuers arrived to begin searching for the victim, DNR officials said. Using sonar technology, Indiana Conservation officers finally located the man's body nearly two hours after he went missing.

Divers from NFD recovered the body at 5:50 p.m. It was located at the bottom of the lake in 11 feet of water. DNR officials said the possibility of alcohol being involved in the drowning is still under investigation and that the name of the victim is being withheld until the family can identify the body.

Call Star reporter Michael Anthony Adams at (317) 444-6123. Follow him on Twitter at @MichaelAdams317.