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Confusion surrounds drowning of man

By COLLEEN JENKINS
Published July 6, 2005

LAND O'LAKES - Victor Armando Olivo Jr. loved his kid brother and sister, keeping their photos tucked in his wallet. He loved all kinds of music, listening to everything from techno to country to rap.

And he loved Independence Day, yearning so much to gain freedom of his own.

But it was not the kind of day the 22-year-old Brooklyn, N.Y., native and Gulf High School grad could enjoy as others did.

Olivo drowned Monday during the early hours of a Norman Rockwellesque July Fourth party at the private Hallelujahland Ranch on State Road 52. As Christian music played and about 4,000 people ate barbecued chicken and swam, Olivo sank 12 feet to the bottom of a murky lake.

The Pasco County Sheriff's Office has ruled the case an accidental death.

Elisabeth Olmo, Olivo's mother, grappled Tuesday with the loss of her firstborn child, who only recently moved out on his own to a place in New Port Richey. She worried about how she will cover his funeral costs, having undergone back surgery three weeks ago for a nursing injury.

Funny, charming and respectful, Olivo said goodbye to his mother last Thursday with a promise to bring her out to dinner this week.

"Que dios te bendiga," she told him in Spanish.

God bless you.

Olivo was due at McDonald's for an evening shift Monday. But his three female roommates persuaded him to join them first at the holiday festivities, which Hallelujahland Ranch owner James F. Griffin III has been sponsoring without incident for area Christians since 1980.

About 4,000 people showed up Monday. Olivo and his friends arrived around noon, signed in and quickly headed to the sandy beach. One roommate, Rebecca Young, began swimming to a floating dock approximately 100 feet from shore, according to a Pasco County sheriff's report.

At first, Olivo hesitated to follow, his roommate Dawn Pierce said, worried about what others might think of the two shoulder tattoos under his shirt. She told him the images of praying hands and a cross were beautiful. Olivo, wearing his female roommate's black shorts because he didn't have a bathing suit, waded into the water.

Then, the man who family and friends describe as "slow" and suffering from heart troubles and slight muscular dystrophy, disappeared.

Authorities, the ranch's owner and Olivo's roommates gave differing accounts to the Times on Tuesday of what happened next. And the roommates' story conflicted with what they previously told authorities.

Deputies spoke with two of Olivo's roommates, Young, 26, and Anne Ishmael, 37. Young first told a deputy that she had seen Olivo swimming behind her but didn't see him go under. Later, she said she saw him bobbing up and down and then sinking below the surface, the incident report said.

Not a very good swimmer herself, she said she told a hot dog stand employee about her friend's disappearance. Ishmael also told deputies she saw Olivo struggling in the water and also alerted someone at the hot dog stand.

But 31-year-old Pierce, who stayed behind on the beach with Ishmael, said no one heeded the roommates' pleas for help. Fully dressed, a water-wary Pierce said she attempted to reach her friend in the water, all the while yelling to the many people splashing around her that Olivo had gone under.

She quickly tired and retreated to the beach. She and Ishmael then spoke to a woman serving hot dogs, Pierce said.

"We told her that our friend is missing and that we had seen him go under," Pierce said. "And she said, "It's probably just a sick joke he's playing.' They sent us around the lake to look for him."

Pierce said the two roommates told numerous people their friend was missing in the water. Eventually, she said, someone made an announcement over the intercom asking if anyone had seen Olivo. The person mispronounced his last name, Pierce said.

People, she said, "looked at us like we were crazy."

But Griffin, the ranch's owner and a member of the Pasco Republican Executive Committee, said the roommates first told organizers they had seen Olivo walking toward the woods on the 93-acre property. So organizers began searching the area on ATVs.

Not until 2 p.m., nearly two hours after Olivo disappeared, did the roommates tell organizers that they had last seen their friend in the water, according to Griffin and deputies.

"I watched him drown," Griffin said one roommate told him.

Shocked, Griffin said he immediately dialed 911. Eight to 10 people had been monitoring swimmers in the water, Griffin said, and someone blew a whistle to clear swimmers from the lake.

When another roommate told Griffin someone had seen Olivo walking down State Road 52, the ranch owner said he hopped in his car and steered it to the road. He stopped three men alongside the highway to see if their tattoos matched Olivo's description.

Then his cell phone rang. Olivo had been found - at the bottom of the lake.

Back at the ranch, where Olivo's body was placed in a rescue vehicle until the medical examiner arrived, organizers announced the young man's death. They asked people to choose that moment to "come to the Lord," Pierce said.

About 100 to 150 people headed back to the water to be baptized, Griffin said. Then, they returned to their revelry: a watermelon eating competition and a greased pole climbing contest with a $100 prize.

"Our main focus of the day is to have people have a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ," Griffin said. "So we decided, well, we're not going to let Satan take that from us. We actually had a perfect Fourth of July party out here, a perfect day, except for this tragedy."

Colleen Jenkins covers courts in west Pasco County. She can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6236 or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6236. Her e-mail address is cjenkins@sptimes.com

[Last modified July 6, 2005, 00:50:11]