CATAWBA COUNTY, N.C. — The Catawba County Sheriff's Office identified the 18-year-old who drowned in Lake Lookout Tuesday as a student at Hickory High School.
The sheriff's office said the girl, identified as Zimera Smith, entered the water near the Lookout Dam boating access. She went under the water and didn't resurface. Her body was located by fire officials and removed from the area Tuesday night.
Smith's childhood friend Hayleigh Parker said the two went to elementary school together and were inseparable back then.
“A really, really, sweet person," Parker said. "She was always checking to make sure I was okay.”
Parker said when she learned of Smith's drowning death it was hard to believe.
"Such an amazing soul," Parker said. "She was supposed to graduate this year, sucks to see her go.”
WCNC Charlotte has reached out to the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission for comment.
There have been multiple drownings in WCNC Charlotte's viewing area in the past month.
Last weekend, search and rescue crews recovered the body of a 32-year-old man on Lake Norman. On April 10, authorities in Iredell County confirmed a man died after an accident on Lake Norman. Smith's body was recovered Tuesday. Then on Wednesday a 13-year-old girl slipped and fell into the water at the Great Pee Dee River in Cheraw and did not resurface.
After four recent drownings, officials are urging boaters, swimmers and others out on the water to be cautious and wear a life jacket at all times.
“The vast majority of people that we see lose their life out on the lake are not using the proper life preserver," Morris Sample with the Lake Norman Marine Commission said.
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