‘We’re going through so much:’ Family mourns Burton man lost in park pond

Even before first responders pulled Javonte Colleton’s body from the water Thursday morning, family members knew he was gone.

Still, they stood waiting while first responders worked at pond at Burton Wells Park to recover the body of the man everyone called “Jay.”

A short time later, his body was recovered along with the electric wheelchair Colleton, 22, had used since he was partially paralyzed in a motorcycle accident five years ago.

“Everybody just loved Jay,” Colleton’s cousin Takeisha Sumpter said Thursday morning as she remembered him with a fond smile.

Colleton didn’t let the wheelchair slow him down, she said.

“He liked to laugh and joke and play fight with people, chase them with his wheelchair.”

Colleton had gone missing the previous day.

Family members said they don’t know why he was down at the pond on Burton Wells Road. He sometimes went there to watch basketball games, but was expected back home around 5 p.m., according to a Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office news release. Typically, he would ride over on his own, but this time he took a bus, his family said.

When he didn’t return to his Shanklin Road home, his family started looking for him.

Sumpter said their family began calling around, asking if anyone had seen him. They even called Beaufort Memorial Hospital.

When they hadn’t found him by 11 p.m., they reported him missing, according to the release.

By 8 a.m. Thursday, they knew their Jay was gone.

There are no indications of foul play, Beaufort County Coroner Ed Allen said Thursday afternoon. An autopsy is scheduled for Friday at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, he said.

Meanwhile, his family continues to mourn his loss.

“I can’t even explain,” Sumpter said. “We’re going through so much.”

This story was originally published April 6, 2017 at 9:37 AM with the headline "‘We’re going through so much:’ Family mourns Burton man lost in park pond."