On Sunday, a fifth tourist died in just four days off the coast of the same Florida beach town.
A 60-year-old woman visiting the Sunshine State from Missouri became the latest victim of dangerous rip currents in Panama City Beach on Sunday morning.
Her death comes after three men drowned on Friday and a teenager died in the Gulf of Mexico waters the day before.
In the latest tragedy, St. Louis resident Debbie Szymanski was enjoying the beach with her family near the Carillon area when family members found her unresponsive after going for a swim around 11:30 a.m., according to the Bay County Sheriff’s Office.
Sheriff’s deputies and emergency responders rushed to the scene as family members tried to grab her and pull her to shore, and she was taken to a local hospital where she was pronounced dead.
Two days earlier, three young fathers from Birmingham, Alabama, were killed just minutes after arriving at an Airbnb they had rented with a group of six for a vacation in Panama City Beach.
According to the sheriff’s office, friends Harold Denzel Hunter, 25, Jemonda Ray, 24, and Marius Richardson, 24, had checked into a rental home near the Watercress Condominiums on the beach just before 8 p.m. and quickly jumped into the ocean for a swim.
Within minutes, all three were caught in a rip current.
The Bay County Sheriff’s Office, emergency services, the Coast Guard and the Florida Wildlife Conservation Commission all responded to the coast and used helicopters to search the dark waters from the ground and the air.
All three were eventually found and pulled from the water, but all died at a local hospital, the sheriff’s office said.
“The heroic actions of our emergency responders are incredible,” Bay County Sheriff Tommy Ford said in a statement. “Many from the Sheriff’s Office, Bay County Emergency Services and Panama City Beach rescue crews dived into the dark and dangerous waters for more than two hours to rescue and search for the young men.”
“I worry about the mental toll this situation is taking on emergency workers because I know I struggle with it myself,” he added.
Their deaths have shocked the local community and emergency workers.
“I am heartbroken this morning by the loss of three young people who visited our community,” Ford said the next day. “I am praying for their families and I ask that you all do the same. It’s truly a tragedy.”
Ray and Richardson were cousins who grew up like brothers, and Hunter was their friend and a member of their family. He told AL.com.
According to local media, Ray was the father of a young son and worked for Amazon, Richardson was married and the father of a two-year-old son, and Hunter was the father of a young son and daughter.
Ray’s girlfriend and Richardson’s wife were also on the trip.
The first of the five victims, 19-year-old Ryker Milton, was killed Thursday evening after going for a swim and becoming entangled in a local ABC affiliate’s current station. KOCO News reported.
Milton, of Muskogee, Oklahoma, was on the beach with a friend around 4 p.m. when he was caught in a rip current, the station reported.
Lifeguards pulled him from the bay and began life-saving measures on the shore, but he was taken in critical condition to a local hospital, where he died in the emergency room, Panama City officials told the station.
According to online tributes, the boy was a star football player at Hilldale High School and graduated from the school in 2023.
“Today we lost one of the most special kids in our program. It’s so hard to put into words the life of this young man,” Hilldale Soccer said in a Facebook post. “Coaches, players, parents and everyone else loves you, Ryker. It was an honor to coach, play with and cheer you on. You changed all of our lives and we will miss you so much.”
The sheriff’s office and other authorities have repeatedly warned people to stay away from the bay’s waters when red flags are flying.
“Please stay out of the water,” Ford posted on Facebook on Sunday after Szymanski was pulled to shore. “The water may appear calm but there is a dangerous current below the surface today. It is too dangerous to swim right now.”
All five victims were swimming when double or single red flags were stationed on the shore.
A double red flag indicates “extremely dangerous conditions” and indicates the waters are closed and no one should swim, while a single red flag indicates “very dangerous conditions with strong waves and currents.”
