NEW ORLEANS -- City lifeguards who threw a party to celebrate a summer season with no drownings discovered a guest dead in the pool when the party was over.

The body of Jerome Moody, 31, was found at the bottom of the deep end when four lifeguards on duty began clearing the pool at the end of the party.


Moody was fully clothed and had not been swimming with other guests at the New Orleans Recreation Department Center, Director Madlyn Richard said.

About half the 200 people at the party were lifeguards, and four of them were on duty during the party Tuesday night.

'The lifeguards were really upset. It's a real tragedy,' Richard said. 'This was the first annual party in memory where they could celebrate a trouble-free season.

'We had all been talking about it. It was the first season without a single (drowning) incident.'

The lifeguards failed to revive Moody. An autopsy confirmed drowning as the cause of death.

The party is an annual event at the end of July when swimming pools are closed at 14 of 19 city recreation centers.