Man, 2 dogs found dead in icy pond ruled an accident, officials say

WEST CHESTER TOWNSHIP, Ohio (WXIX/Gray News) – Officials said Wednesday the deaths of a man and two dogs pulled from a pond in Ohio were ruled accidental.

The Butler County coroner’s office said the man was identified as 36-year-old Sun Yue.

A water search began around 9 a.m. Wednesday at Voice of America MetroPark after multiple reports from park maintenance that someone may be in the nearby pond, according to West Chester Township spokesperson Brianna Wooten.

Crews found a cellphone, a dog leash and keys at the water’s edge, prompting officials to believe someone had entered the pond, West Chester Fire Chief Rick Prinz said.

He said they also found shoe prints leading to the water.

Public safety teams began searching the water around 8:50 a.m. Wednesday.

“When we got here, we immediately put people in the water, search teams in the water, and we did recover a dog pretty quickly,” Prinz said.

Just before noon, officials called the Butler County Coroner to the scene when they found a man, who was identified as Yue, and another dog.

The Southwest Regional Task Force One Dive Team recovered both bodies.

The park’s pond is still covered in ice, making recovery efforts more difficult, Prinz said.

“There was pretty thick ice. We had to cut the ice with an ax and a sledgehammer to get to some access points,” he said.

Prinz said officials searched the pond for at least an hour before they found the man. It is not clear how long he was in the water.

Prinz said it is also unknown why the man and his dogs ended up in the pond, but he assumes it might have been an accident.

The fire chief said the dogs could have been running onto the frozen pond when ice broke through, and the owner may have jumped in to save them.