A 31-year-old Stark County man drowned when his all-terrain vehicle apparently plunged into a pond last weekend in Perry Township, the coroner's office announced.
Jermiy Ricoski had superficial scrapes on his face and thigh, but preliminary findings of an autopsy on Wednesday showed the cause of death was accidental drowning, Stark County Deputy Coroner P.S. Murthy said.
Massillon police Sgt. James Mizeres said city firefighters found Ricoski's body at 12:57 p.m. Tuesday in about 12 feet of water in a gravel-pit pond on the property of Central Allied Enterprises Inc., a strip-mining firm at 390 Warmington Road S.W. near the Massillon-Perry Township line.
The man's father, William Ricoski, said friends of his son told him they last saw him late Friday night when they were all riding their ATVs in that area.
``I guess they were all going their different ways. Everybody was going home, and I guess they just assumed he went his own way, I don't know,'' William Ricoski said.
The father said he reported his son missing to Perry Township police Monday night after he did not show up for work that morning at Cottrill Wrecking Co., in the 3500 block of Erie Avenue Southwest, where he lived in a trailer home.
Mizeres said Massillon firefighters joined in a search for the man after being notified by city police that Perry Township police and firefighters were searching the strip-mine property for the body on Tuesday morning.
Workers at Central Allied had notified police on Monday that they had found an ATV and pulled it out of the pond, Mizeres said. He said the department has received numerous calls from the company about trespassing by ATV and dirt-bike riders.
Mizeres said investigators were trying to contact Jermiy Ricoski's friends about the circumstances of his disappearance and that trespassing charges were possible.
He said foul play was not suspected.
