Two bodies recovered from lake in Camden County in apparent accidental drowning, police say

Two bodies were recovered from the water in Penbryn Lake in Camden County, New Jersey Monday afternoon.

Winslow Township police said it appeared to be an accidental drowning and not suspicious.

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The Winslow Township Police Department responded to the Penbryn Wildlife Management area just before 3 p.m. on Aug. 5 after a witness called to report the missing swimmers, officials said.

The two victims were in their early twenties and from Clementon and Gloucester Township, New Jersey, according to police.

Family and friends of the victims were seen consoling each other after getting word of the two people killed.

NBC10's Johnny Archer spoke with a family member of one of the victims who told him that his 24-year-old nephew went swimming with three of his friends. But his nephew and another person never came out of the lake.

SkyForce10 was over the scene around 4 p.m. while officials were getting ready to search the water.

Several fire trucks, ambulances and police cars were also at the scene.

The dive team assigned to the search was able to locate the bodies of the two men and pull them out of the water around 4:20 p.m., officials said. They were both pronounced dead on the scene.

One woman familiar with the area describes the lake that she says was once a quarry years ago.

"The ledge goes out and drops off to over 90 feet deep because it’s a quarry," Barbara Stella, who lives in Winslow Township, said.

There are "no swimming" signs but they are spray painted over and people are known to ignore the warnings.

"It's a hot day. You don’t listen to the signs. You just kind of go and do it. But it's dangerous. Very dangerous," Stella said.

At this time officials have not identified the two bodies that were pulled from the lake.

An investigation is ongoing at this time.

This is not the first time that someone has drowned at the Penbryn Lake. In 2020, a 35-year-old man died while swimming there.

"When I was a kid, one of the kids in Penbryn drowned in the lake. He was just by himself and they recovered him a month later because the lake is so deep," Stella said.

This is a developing story. Check back for more information.