COCOA, Fla. – The body of a man who went into a Cocoa pond to save a woman in distress has been found on Monday, according to Cocoa Police Department.
Witnesses told firefighters just before 6 p.m., 37-year-old Walter Perdieu went into the retention pond off of Grissom Parkway to help the woman. That woman was brought safely to shore by another bystander, however, Perdieu never resurfaced.
Melissa Sloan was at the pond off Grissom Parkway in Brevard County on Saturday, and she told Local 6 the woman with Perdieu was making a scene.
"She said 'I'll drown myself will you come save me if I drown myself?' And he told her not to go out there," said Sloan.
Sloan said she watched the woman swim out to the middle of the pond.
"She started kicking and screaming, help me help me, floating on her back, saying help me," she said.
Sloan says Perdieu told the woman he wasn't a good swimmer and to swim back.
The woman refused.
Sloan says Perdieu swam out after her
"When he got to her he was trying to help her and she kept resisting him and pushing him under water and kicking him," she said.
Sloan says a jet ski scooped the woman up, but before Perdieu could be pulled in, he was under water.
"We all jumped in and tried to find him but just couldn't find him," she said.
Brevard County Sheriff's deputies were called to the scene after a crowd of nearly 50 people gathered and became unruly, making threats against the woman who was rescued and rescuers at the scene.
Perdieu's body was found on Monday afternoon, police said. The investigation in ongoing.