Bryan woman drowns at Lake Somerville after saving child

This marks the second drowning at Lake Somerville this summer.
Published: Jul. 19, 2020 at 3:09 PM CDT|Updated: Jul. 19, 2020 at 10:34 PM CDT
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Somerville, Texas (KBTX) - On Saturday, July 18, 2020 at approximately 7:00PM the Burleson County Sheriff’s Office received a report of a missing person who was last seen in the water near Birch Creek State Park.

According to witnesses, a group of individuals were on a boat several hundred yards from the shoreline when the victim, Olivia Paige Sweeney, 30, of Bryan, jumped into the water. One witness tells KBTX she was attempting to make contact with a child in the lake who was floating away from the boat.

The child, who was wearing a life-vest, was safely retrieved but Sweeney was caught up in a current and drowned after struggling to stay above water, said witnesses.

That search for her body was suspended at 4:00 AM on Sunday and was resumed this morning at daybreak. At 12:15 PM Sweeney was recovered in close-proximity were she was last seen. Her body has been transported to the Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office in Austin where an autopsy will be performed.

The Burleson County Sheriff’s Office was assisted by Texas Parks and Wildlife, Texas Department of Public Safety, Somerville Fire Department, Birch Creek Fire Department, St. Joseph’s EMS, PHI Air Med 7, Washington County’s Air Unit and the Army Corps of Engineers.

This marks the second drowning this summer at Lake Somerville. In late May, a 20-year-old Sealy man jumped off a boat into the water and never resurfaced.

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