Grieving mother questions son’s accidental drowning

PELION,SC (WOLO)- A South Carolina woman son’s death has been ruled accidential, but she believes there is more to the story.

Officials say Marcus Dwyer, 18, drowned after jumping off a bridge into the Edisto river and swimming with friends.

The Pelion High School student was just weeks away from graduating before the tragedy.

“I know he thought about me under that water,” Roshika Mickens, Marcus mother said crying. “I know he said something about me under that water.”

According to witnesses Marcus was seen near the bridge. After his friends jumped in, they encouraged him to do the same, and did, according to the report. But his family says that doesn’t sound like something Marcus would do.

“If you are a leader where can peer pressure push you to do anything,”Joyce Belton, Marcus Grandmother said. “They need to explain that to me because I don’t understand that.”

His mother believes he was pushed off the bridge.

“Anybody that know Eddie would tell you he does not know how to swim,” Mickens said.

According to a report from the Orangeburg County Sheriff’s department, Marcus tried to grab onto his friends after jumping,  but they thought he was “playing around” and pushed him away.

The reports says his girlfriend saw him go underwater and never come back up.

“Since they pulled him out that water I haven’t seen him yet,” Mickens said.

His mother now lives with the pain of not having her son who she calls her heart.

“They took somebody great,” Mickens said.