CAMARILLO : Teacher’s Death Called an Accident
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An autopsy performed Wednesday on the body of a teacher who died while swimming in a pool at the California Youth Authority facility in Camarillo shows that the death was an accidental drowning, authorities said.
While ruling out foul play, medical examiners could not explain why Deidre Svensson, 40, a special education teacher for the last year and a half at the CYA’s Ventura School in Camarillo, suddenly drowned during a lunchtime swim Tuesday.
“We don’t know why she drowned at this time,” Deputy Coroner Jim Wingate said. “It is still under investigation.”
After noting that the official cause of death was suffocation by drowning, and not a heart attack or some other explanation, medical examiners decided to conduct a toxicology and microbiology study to determine why Svensson drowned, Wingate said.
A school spokesman said Svensson, a Santa Barbara resident who taught speech and language, was a good swimmer who regularly swam during her lunch break.
“She did swim often and she was a good swimmer. We’re all at something of a loss to explain this,” spokesman Nate Simpson said.
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