SLIPPERY ROCK, Lawrence County — A day at a popular swimming hole turned tragic Sunday afternoon when a teenager drowned in swift-moving Slippery Rock Creek, authorities said.

John Wayne Durnell, 17, of Ellwood City was last seen about 4:25 p.m. trying to swim across the creek in the Kennedy’s Mill area in Slippery Rock Township.

Durnell had been swimming and fishing with a friend, a teenage boy, when the two attempted to make it across the water, about one-half mile south of Kennedy’s Mill Bridge.

“One kid made it and the other almost made it before he went under and never resurfaced,” said Lawrence County Deputy Coroner Bill Johnson, who pronounced Durnell dead at the scene at 6:50 p.m.

The cause of death is listed as accidental freshwater drowning. There was no autopsy.

The Lawrence County Dive Team and New Castle Fire Department Dive Team were among the emergency crews sent to the creek off Frew Mill Road when Durnell turned up missing. State police were also called.

Divers found the body in several feet of water and pulled it to shore.

Authorities noted a strong rainfall that day increased the current flow and the amount of debris in the river.

The drowning left the other teen badly shaken up, witnesses said.

Johnson said he has been called to at least two other drownings in the same area of the creek in the past few years.