NEW FREEDOM, PENNSYLVANIA: On Thursday, June 30, the body of a 12-year-old boy was found at the Summit Grove campground in New Freedom, Pennsylvania. Pau Khai, an American boy with Burmese roots, was missing for more than ten hours before his body was found in a pool at the campground. The camp said that from 3:30 to 6 p.m., which is when he was supposed to swim, they did what they always did. Ted Czech, the acting director of communications for York County, said that Khai was wearing a white T-shirt and black-and-green swim trunks when he died.
12-year-old boy is found dead in a pool hours after camp staff checked on him
ABC affiliate WHTM said that Khai was reported missing at 3:45 p.m. on June 29 and wasn’t found until 2:00 a.m. on June 30. The 12-year-old was a member of Lancaster’s Westminster Presbyterian Church and was at a three-day junior high retreat put on by the church. The camp said that people from Westminster Presbyterian Church looked in the pool for Pau before calling 911 at 11:45 pm to report him missing.
One of the campers told CBS21 that the 12-year-old was seen walking down a gravel road and heading toward the camp entrance. An autopsy done on July 1 showed that the cause of death was accidental drowning.
“We have to take every precaution and treat everything as seriously as we can, just in case,” Regional Police Chief James Boddington told WHTM. “But at this point, we have no information that it’s anything other than an accident.” He also said, “But just to be sure, we’re going to look into everything.”