Lake Leschenaultia: Witness Emerald Mckelvie reveals teen boy missing for an hour before body found in water

A 17-year-old boy has drowned after becoming trapped underneath a pontoon at a popular Perth Hills lake, with witnesses describing how the boy’s twin brother was desperately calling for help, prompting heroic bystanders to dive in to find him. Emergency services were called to Lake Leschenaultia in Chidlow, about 50km from Perth, after receiving a report that a swimmer was “in distress” at 2pm on Tuesday. On Tuesday afternoon, police confirmed the boy could not be revived. “Sadly, the 17-year-old male swimmer was declared deceased,” a police spokeswoman said. It is believed he became trapped under the pontoon, with authorities seen pulling it to shore. “The death is being treated as non-suspicious and a report will be prepared for the coroner,” the spokeswoman said. Police, Mundaring Volunteer Fire and Rescue Service volunteers and St John WA special operations officers are at the scene. Detectives were also seen entering the carpark around the lake about 5.30pm. Witness Emerald Mckelvie was at the lake with her young children on Tuesday afternoon when she heard the 17-year-old’s twin brother scream for help. “The boy was yelling out, ‘help, help ... he’s under there’ and then everyone started running in,” she said. Ms Mckelvie said she and about 20 other volunteers searched the lake for up to an hour. “We all just started taking turns and diving in ... we actually made a circle to make sure (we could find him),” she said. “Everyone was just taking turns to dive in ... and we made sure we counted everyone’s head, so if two people were going under water we knew that two people needed to come back up ... it was really good team work. “I was yelling to get paddle boards because at least you can stand up on paddle boards, but even then, the water was still too dark to see.” Ms Mckelvie described the water around the pontoon as “very deep”. “I made sure to dive off the pontoon so I had extra air ... I drove straight down and I couldn’t even touch the bottom and I went a good five metres down to the point where I couldn’t see,” she said. “I was just trying to feel a limb or trying to feel seaweed.” Ms Mckelvie said a volunteer spotted the body after about an hour. “We had this guy go, ‘he’s right here’ ... I couldn’t see him but I could see a dark patch,” she said. “It was just this big dark patch ... he was right underneath me which sucks, but we all tried so hard ... we just don’t have the lung capacity to go that deep.” Susi Asmara, who was learning how to swim at Lake Leschenaultia with her partner on Tuesday, said she heard several people screaming from the shoreline before she realised what had happened. “I heard people screaming, I thought people were fighting.... as we drove home we saw two ambulances drive towards the lake.” Ms Asmara, who has two children of her own, estimated about 10 people were swimming around the pontoon. “It’s very sad, they’re not my family, I don’t know who they are, but I’m shaking.”