Point Pleasant Man Drowns In NJ Forest Reservoir

POINT PLEASANT, NJ — A Point Pleasant man has been identified as the person who drowned Saturday in a reservoir in the Brendan T. Byrne State Forest in Manchester Township.

Frank Guadagnini, 55, was pulled from the reservoir in the Whitesbog section of the forest after authorities received a call at 7:35 p.m. Saturday, the state Department of Environmental Protection said.

Officials with the Whiting Volunteer Fire Company in Manchester Township said the company responded to a call to Whitesbog, on the Manchester-Pemberton border, for a possible submersion and confirmed someone was submerged in one of the ponds, the fire company wrote on Facebook.

Manchester Dive Team members, with support from Ridgeway Fire Company, performed a grid search and found Guadagnini, the fire company said.

RWJ Barnabas Health paramedics tried to revive him, the fire company said, but the NJDEP said the efforts were unsuccessful.

Caryn Shinske, a spokesperson for the NJDEP, said Guadagnini was found in an unnamed reservoir that feeds the cranberry operations at Whitesbog.

"It did not occur in a cranberry bog," she said.

The approximate location can be seen in this Google map:

Shinske did not have any additional details.

Also responding were Burlington County Fire Stations 181/183, the Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst Fire Department, Manchester EMS, the Lacey Township Dive team, Manchester Township Police and the New Jersey State Park Police.

Shinske said people are reminded that swimming in New Jersey’s state parks and forests is only permitted in designated, lifeguarded swimming areas. A full list of State Park Service swim areas, along with hours of operation, is available on the NJDEP website.

Guadagnino's death was the second drowning on Saturday in Manchester. Earlier in the day, Edwin Toro-Mejia, 33, of Howell, drowned in Crystal Lake, the quarry lake in the former Heritage Minerals mining site off Route 70.

Manchester police said he suffered a leg cramp 30 yards from shore while swimming illegally at the site, which is heavily posted as no trespassing. There have been multiple deaths at the Heritage Minerals lake where people regularly ignore the warnings about the many dangers posed at the site.

Note: An earlier version of this article referred to the body of water as a cranberry bog. Patch regrets the error.