Party Guest Drowns in Lake Trying to Hold Breath

A party contest to see who could stay underwater the longest ended in death when police say one competitor didn’t resurface.

Baldwin County sheriff’s Capt. Brad King tells news outlets 23-year-old Robert Zachary “Zach” Bunsa of Basking Ridge, New Jersey, drowned Saturday at Georgia’s Lake Sinclair.

King says Bunsa was trying to see how long he could hold his breath, but didn’t come back up.

Georgia Department of Natural Resources Cpl. Lynn Stanford says the approximately 15 people at the party didn’t realize he was still in the water, and went to the house to look for him. Stanford says it was more than seven minutes before someone realized he was still in the lake. One of them dived down and pulled him out.

Bunsa was pronounced dead at the scene.