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By CARY DAVIS
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 17, 2001
NEW PORT RICHEY -- Police were investigating the drowning of a 60-year-old man whose partly clothed body was pulled from the Pithlachascotee River Tuesday afternoon.
Witnesses reported seeing the man, later identified as Gaetano John Sereno of 5539 Charles St., floating downstream on his back about 4:10 p.m.
Sereno, dressed only in long pants and socks, apparently entered the chilly water through a vacant lot on the west bank of the river, about a quarter mile south of Main Street.
He was only in the river a few hundred feet before he slowly slipped beneath the surface, witnesses said.
"There was no struggle," said Craig Lasobik, who was looking out the window of his sun room when he saw Sereno start to go under. "I could see bubbles from where his nose was going down."
Lasobik called 911, but by the time rescuers found Sereno and pulled his body from the murky water about 20 minutes later, there was nothing anyone could do.
Sereno was pronounced dead a short time later at Community Hospital New Port Richey.
New Port Richey police said Tuesday night that they still are investigating.