SCOTTSDALE, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) – A rescue mission turned into a recovery operation after a man died inside a pipe at the Eldorado Aquatic & Fitness Center in Scottsdale overnight.
Officer Kevin Watts of the Scottsdale Police Department said an officer was on patrol about a quarter of a mile away from the Aquatic Center northeast of McDowell and Hayden roads when he heard what sounded like “muffled screams for help” shortly after midnight. It took about an hour to find the man.
While officers did not know it at the time, the pipe where they eventually found him was “acting almost like a megaphone.” That made it extremely difficult for them to pinpoint his location.
First responders talked with the man, believed to be a 32-year-old transient, for about an hour before he stopped answering them.
What started as a rescue shifted to a recovery at about 3 a.m.
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