Drowning may be due to lack of funds

A drowning victim whose body was pulled from the Suwannee River at the Spirit of Suwannee Music Park over the weekend may have suffered seizures because he couldn’t afford to buy his medication, according to a report by the Suwannee County Sheriff’s Office.

The body of Joseph Paul Earl, 26, of Atlantic Beach, was discovered by a passerby Sunday afternoon at about 3 p.m. in the Suwannee River floating just under the surface. Chief Deputy Ron Colvin and John Hale used a boat to recover Earl’s body.The search began Saturday, May 27 after Earl’s girlfriend, Tessla Plunkett, also of Atlantic Beach, reported that she and Earl were spending the Memorial Day weekend at the Music Park and were swimming at the Music Park’s sandbar when she noticed that Earl has walked up the embankment toward the parking area, leaving behind his shoes and clothes.

When he did not return, she began searching for him, spending several hours looking for him along with his friends at the Music Park. The Sheriff’s Office was called, a search by Plunkett and Deputy Larry Rogers of the entire park turned up nothing. The Hamilton County K9 team was called in, but due to the number of people at the Music Park, the dogs were not affective.

The search for Earl went on through the night, encompassing a search of the river by Colvin and Hale and the Florida Wildlife Commission and by air with the Florida Highway Patrol that did not yield any trace of Earl.Plunkett told Rogers that Earl had severe seizures and was on medication but had not taken his medication in about two months because they could not afford to buy it.Earl’s body was sent to the medical examiner’s office in Jacksonville for an autopsy to determine the cause of death. The report said no signs of foul play were seen on the body recovered from the river.