A daring contest turned deadly as police believe 11-year-old Jordan Oliver from Bolingbrook, Ill. drowned in a retention pond behind her elementary school Tuesday by jumping off a bridge after being dared by classmates.
STORY: So Sad! 11-Year-Old Texts Friends, Then Hangs Herself
According to ABC News, witnesses remember hearing Jordan Oliver tell her friends she couldn’t swim before jumping off the bridge behind Pioneer Elementary School, where Oliver was in fifth grade.
Bolingbrook police say Oliver and a group of six other boys and girls said they were going “bridge jumping” Tuesday and climbed over the side rails of the bridge at a pond at Indian Chase Meadows.
Oliver jumped twice, the first time she was able to swim to shore, but the second time witnesses say they saw her resurface, then sink into the 12-foot-deep water.
Police and fire crews arrived at the pond at about 5:36 p.m. Tuesday, and found Jordan about an hour later. She was taken to Adventist Bolingbrook Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Grief counselors were on hand at the 800-student elementary school Wednesday morning, where school officials say they are trying to make the environment as normal as possible. Administrators described Oliver as a popular student who loved the school and got along with classmates.
Jackie Malonga, Oliver’s next door neighbor said:
“She was an angel…Everyone in the neighborhood loved her. We are all in a state of shock right now.”
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Oliver family during this time.
