Manchester Mourns 17-Year-Old Drowning Victim, A 'Bright Star' Gone Too Soon

Denasia Davis loved to sing.

“Gospel, R&B, pop, anything,” said her cousin, Nina Martinez. “Our all-time favorite thing to do together was sing.”

“When we sang together, it was like we were the only two in the universe, just two bright stars holding hands,” Martinez said.

Martinez and Denasia’s family will now have to hold that bright star in their hearts, after the 17-year-old drowned in a lake at the Heritage Minerals site off Route 37 in Manchester June 30. Her death has people again calling for action to prevent further tragedies at the site, which has seen at least four drownings, authorities said.

“Words like “grief and sorrow” fall well short of the feelings we have about losing one of Manchester’s children,” Manchester Mayor Ken Palmer wrote in a Facebook post. “God bless the Davis family and their little girl.”

Martinez said her cousin, who would have been a senior at Manchester Township High School in the fall, had hoped to go to college in Georgia the following year.

“She wanted to be a doctor, someone special to everyone,” said Martinez, who is six months younger than Denasia and had planned to transfer from Lakewood High School to Manchester so the two could graduate together next June.

“She was so smart, and kind. She wasn’t in a whole bunch of drama,” Martinez said.

Manchester Superintendent David Trethaway said Denasia was well-liked among her peers and an honor student.

“She had a great personality,” he said. “She was one of those quiet girls who was just well liked by everyone.”

There will be counselors at the high school from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday for students who would like support, Trethaway said.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the family,” he said. “This is a terrible tragedy.”

Denasia Davis’s death in the lake was the first since a Bound Brook man drowned in September 2011 at the site. A 25-year-old drowned there in July 1999 and a 17-year-old boy died in the lake in September 1984, Manchester Lieutenant Vincent Manco said. The site is marked with multiple “No Trespassing” signs and warnings, and Manchester Township police do regularly ticket people for trespassing on the property.

But the signs and summonses and warnings, however, aren’t enough to deter kids from sneaking into the site --primarily to ride all-terrain vehicles and go off-roading in SUVs, but occasionally to swim, like Denasia and her friends did Tuesday.

“There have also been people killed on quads,” said one parent who contacted the Patch. “In some places there are shrines where the people died.”

The area is called Sarco by some, a reference to the American Smelting and Refining Company, which originally purchased the 7,000-acre property in 1960 to mine titanium, according to a report by Environmental Dimension, which performed remediation at the site in 2010.

The mining operation, which began in 1973 and ended in 1982, resulted in the creation of two lakes at the site -- Crystal Lake, the larger of the two, and a secondary smaller lake -- as the mining reached down to the Cohansey aquifer, the natural water supply that runs under the Pinelands. Heritage Minerals Inc., a subsidiary of Hovson’s formed specifically to purchase the land from ASARCO, bought the site in the late 1980s, the AMEC report said.

Because the lakes were formed as a result of the mining operation, they do not have a stable bottom, the way Pine Lake or Harry Wright Lake do, officials said. They are as much as 300 feet deep, according to some estimates.

“The sides of the lake are very steep and very unstable,” said Al Della Fave, spokesman for the prosecutor’s office. “When you step on them they can break off and give way,” making it difficult to get out of the water.

In addition, because the water source is mineral-laden spring water from the aquifer, bouyancy is reduced, he said. “It’s very different from salt water,” Della Fave said. The water is also much colder, which can result in a swimmer -- even an accomplished one -- tiring much faster.

“People just do not realize how dangerous it really is,” he said.

Another reader who spoke with the Patch says she wishes more people understood the dangers. She was a youngster in 1984 when a 17-year-old boy drowned at the site.

“(His death) was enough for me as a preteen to not even be curious about it,” she said. And because radioactive minerals were excavated from the site, she has simply stayed away altogether.

Police Chief Lisa Parker, in an article about the 2011 drowning, said the department regularly tickets people for trespassing. “It is a problem for law enforcement. It is restricted but people continue to use the area for recreational activities.”

Keeping people out of the site is a monumental task, Della Fave said.

“You can’t block it off; the site is simply too big,” he said.

“Sarco is a rite of passage for these kids,” said one parent. “MTPD has their hands full.”

Denasia’s death may be a deterrent, at least for a while. Several of her friends tweeting about the teen’s passing, with some saying they will never go back to Sarco as a result, and others urging peers to stay away.

Her death, however, has left a hole in the hearts of a school community that endured the death of a 17-year-old boy earlier this spring, after he was struck on Route 37 while riding his bicycle.

“I honestly just don’t even know if our town has bad luck or are we cursed or something,” tweeted Alyssa Hampton.

“That my girl ... I CAN’T believe it,” tweeted Demetrius Walton, sharing photos of himself and Denasia at prom this year and at another formal dance.

“Since day one you were the best of me my love. Us against the world always and forever right?” tweeted a girl named Brenda, who goes by the Twitter handle of Bren.

“Heaven gained another angel today,” tweeted Shannon Mitchell. “RIP Denasia you’ll always be more than a teammate. Fly High De you’ll always be a shining star.”

Martinez said Denasia is survived by her mother, Celeste Glenn, and her younger brother, Javion, who is 9, as well as extended family, and her death is simply devastating.

She loved scary movies and playing volleyball, trading Snapchat recordings with Martinez “and just having good clean fun.

“We loved singing in her living room. We also sang together in our church choir,” at No Limit Worship Center in Lakehurst, Martinez said. “Our favorite song to sing together was “Someone Like You” by Adele. The last song we sang together was on Sunday and it was “He wants it all” by Forever Jones.

“Every time we were together we sang, whether it was quiet or really loud. That was just our thing, she was my everything,” Martinez said.

(Photo of Denasia Davis courtesy of Nina Martinez, via Twitter)