18-Year-Old Drowns While Kayaking with Friend: 'One of the Most Beautiful Souls'

Mar. 15, 2025

Aaron Tillman.Photo:GoFundMe

GoFundMe

A Florida community is reeling following the death of an 18-year-old high school football star who drowned while kayaking with a friend.

After a nearly 14-hour-long search, authorities in Eagle Lake, Fla. found Aaron Tillman’s body in Lake McLeod shortly after 5 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 2, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said in a video statement onFacebook.

Marine Unit deputies from the Polk County Sheriff’s Office located the student athlete in water that was about 13 feet deep, the sheriff’s office said.

Tillman had been missing since the day before, when he and a 19-year-old woman ventured onto the lake in a kayak. Neither was wearing a life jacket, per the sheriff’s office, and family members later told authorities that Tillman did not know how to swim and had never been on a kayak before.

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Now, Tillman’s friends, teammates and coaches on the football and wrestling teams at Ambassadors Christian Academy in Winter Haven are stunned after his sudden death.

“He was such a respectful, honorable kid,” football coach Eryk Anglin told theMiami Heraldabout the teen. “He never talked back, always tried to get the team to listen to the coaches. He didn’t deserve this.”

In aGoFundMeestablished in Tillman’s memory, the high school senior is being remembered for the impact he made.

“We lost one of the most beautiful souls you could ever meet,” organizer Brandy Smith wrote. “Aaron touched the hearts of many people during his time here with us.”

“It’s very hard for all of us,” Anglintold ABC affiliate WFTS. “The coaches, the players, the school. We’re all going to miss Aaron.”

source: people.com