A woman's body lay at the bottom of a public swimming pool in the US for more than two days this week without being noticed by swimmers or lifeguards, officials said.
Investigators are poring over surveillance video and conducting interviews in a bid to establish what happened to 36-year-old Marie Joseph in Fall River, Massachusetts this week.
Ms Joseph had gone to Veterans Memorial Pool on Sunday with a group of friends. She had used a slide at the pool but had not returned to the surface. The water in the pool was described as 'cloudy'.
Her body was found on Tuesday night, when teenagers jumped over a fence for a clandestine swim, police said.
Authorities said she had not been reported missing. Her friends said they thought she simply gone home.
After the discovery, state officials closed 24 state-run swimming pools and suspended staff at the Fall River pool. Two Fall River inspectors also were placed on paid leave.
"The facts appear to indicate that a woman was in the water for a number of days and not noticed by staff, patrons or other inspections that may have taken place," said State Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Richard Sullivan, whose department oversees state-run pools.
He said he found the possibility disturbing and "a breakdown systematically somewhere."
Ms Joseph was a native of Haiti and had five children. She worked as a housekeeper at a hotel in Newport, Rhode Island.
Her friend Veronica Reis (21), said she had driven her to the pool. At some point, Ms Joseph and a nine-year-old boy in the group went into the pool from a slide, she said. After they splashed into the water, the boy noticed that Ms Joseph hadn't come back up.
"He got up to the water and went to go tell the lifeguard," said Ms Reis. "The lifeguard said he was going to do a pool check. ... They never did that. They never did anything."
Tasha Stokes (28), said she visited the pool on Monday and noticed that the deep end of the pool was closed to swimmers.
"It was white. We went swimming in that water. There were little kids drinking that water," said Ms Stokes. "I'm shocked. I was swimming in water with a dead person. I think I have a lawsuit on my hands."