Snellville Mother of Three Drowns in Florida

Several news sources have reported that 37-year old Jacqueline Landaverde of Snellville drowned on July 18 while on vacation with a church group in Longboat Key, Fla.

The Gwinnett Daily Post reports that the Longboat Key Police report states that Landaverde "started having trouble" while swimming with her husband, Daniel and her 12 year old daughter. According to her daughter, Landaverde was "not a good swimmer" and the current seemed to be taking her further from shore. She quickly got into water that was too deep to reach the bottom.

An AJC post of the police report states: "They had gone out a little ways in the water when they started getting swept out into deeper water and Jacqueline could no longer touch the bottom. She started struggling in the water and [Daniel] tried helping her until he began to be overcome by the outgoing current."

Sara and her father made their way to shore to call for help. On July 19, a Longboat Key news source, Your Observer, gives an eye witness account of a man who was fishing in an inflatable watercraft. He heard calls for help coming from the sandbar area and saw a man “frantically waving and calling out” and the "victim being tumbled by waves." 

He estimated that "Landaverde was under water for three to five minutes" before a Good Samaritan swam the 200 feet to find her floating face down and unresponsive. They performed CPR on shore until emergency services arrived; she was taken to Sarasota Memorial Hospital where she was pronounced dead at around 5 p.m. according to the police report.