Another tourist — the 5th in 4 days — has died off the same Florida beach town, cops say

A Missouri woman visiting Florida’s Panhandle has become the fifth tourist in four days to die off Panama City Beach, officials say.

Debbie Szymanski was swimming around 11:30 a.m. Sunday, June 23, when relatives noticed something was wrong, the Bay County Sheriff’s Office reported.

“Family members, realizing that 60-year-old Debbie Szymanski was not responsive in Gulf waters, had already begun to bring her to shore,” the sheriff’s office said in a news release.

“Szymanski was taken to a local hospital where she was pronounced deceased.”

A cause of death has not been released, but the sheriff’s office says water conditions were dangerous at the time, due to rip currents. The currents are powerful channels of water that can flow at eight feet a second, dragging swimmers from beaches, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Ocean Service reports.

“Please stay out of the water,” the sheriff’s office wrote in a June 23 Facebook post. “The water can appear calm but underneath currents are treacherous today. It’s just too dangerous right now to swim.”

Szymanski was swimming near the Carillon Beach Resort, about a 15-mile drive from the Watercress Condominiums where three Alabama men died Friday, June 21.

The men were identified as Harold Denzel Hunter, 25, Jemonda Ray, 24, and Marius Richardson, 24, all from Birmingham, Alabama. They died minutes after checking into an Airbnb when they rushed to the water and got caught in rip current around 8 p.m. Friday, officials said.

A fifth tourist — 19-year-old Ryker Milton of Muskogee, Oklahoma, — died Thursday, June 20, at Panama City Beach, Fox23 News reports.

“Milton was out with a friend ... and was caught in the current,” KOCO reported. “First responders began life-saving measures on the beach and transported Milton to an area hospital in critical condition. He later died in the emergency room.”

Panama City Beach is about a 95-mile drive east of Pensacola.

This story was originally published June 25, 2024 at 4:47 AM with the headline "Another tourist — the 5th in 4 days — has died off the same Florida beach town, cops say."