Elliott Jones

Treasure Coast Newspapers

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — An injured motorist found dead in a golf course pond Monday was a 23-year-old county resident, according to a sheriff's official.

The cause of death was drowning, and alcohol could have been a factor, sheriff's spokesman Lt. Thom Raulen said Tuesday.

According to investigators, Aveion Sturrup was the driver in a single-vehicle crash early Sunday along U.S. 1 north of Vero Beach. An autopsy on Tuesday showed he had broken ribs, and a passenger in the car said he had been drinking, Raulen said.

Further tests are needed to determine how much alcohol was in Sturrup's system.

Apparently he staggered east onto the nearby Grand Harbor golf course. There, he fell into the (pond), Raulen said.

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"He was not a victim of a crime," he said. "We don't know if the ribs (injury) made it difficult for him to breathe or whether he gasped for air and took in water."

Golf course landscape workers found the body on Monday morning, roughly 24 hours after the crash, and called 911.

The passenger was taken to a hospital for treatment of injuries. Neither the name of that person nor Sturrup's address were immediately available.

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