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PROVO, Utah (AP) -- There were no traces of drugs or alcohol in the bodies of the two women and two men who drowned last month inside an underground waterway in a cave on Provo Mountain, police said.
A final report from the state medical examiner's office showed that J. Blake Donner, 24, of Springville; Scott K. McDonald, 28, of Provo; Jennifer Lynn Galbraith, 21, of Pleasant Grove; and Ariel R. Singer, 18, of Orem, all died from accidental drowning, police Detective Hiatt Bean said.
"They were all clean," Bean said. "That (cavern) room that they went into was just so small. To have four people in there, they had to have been very lightheaded when they started heading back."
The four died early Aug. 18 in a water-filled passageway in a cave that could be an abandoned mine.
The passageway was about 15 feet long with a guide rope tied to a rock at the opening and to a piece of wood inside a small cavern chamber.
Police suspect the four swam through the tunnel to the small chamber, then got stuck on their way back out. All four bodies were found in the passageway, facing the cave's entrance.
"To get all four in there with little oxygen, it just wasn't a good thing," Bean said.
After the drownings, the entrance to the cave was sealed with reinforced concrete. Officials are working to find and prevent access to other similar caves or abandoned mines in the area.
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
