{"id":209831,"date":"2026-09-08T09:28:43","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T14:28:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=209831"},"modified":"2026-09-08T09:28:46","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T14:28:46","slug":"weekend-death-ruled-a-drowning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2026\/09\/08\/weekend-death-ruled-a-drowning\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekend death ruled a drowning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>VW independent staff<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>MIDDLE POINT &#8212; A Wapakoneta man died of accidental drowning in a pond in Middle Point on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Van Wert County deputies, along with Middle Point Fire &amp; EMS were dispatched to the 19000 block of Bellis Rd. at approximately 6:45 p.m. Sunday. It was initally believed that a drunk driver drove into the pond, but that turned out to be inaccurate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Witnesses were able to pull Robert Hunsicker, 70, from the water and lifesaving measures were administered by a person with medical training, followed by aid by first responders. He was transported to OhioHealth Van Wert Hospital but was later pronounced dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A report from the Van Wert County Sheriff\u2019s Office noted that Hunsinker was at a nearby cookout and was intoxicated when he told others he wanted to go for a swim. He was gone for about 15 minutes when someone went to check on him and spotted him unresponsive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Multiple witness statements were taken at the scene. The report stated the case is closed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>VW independent staff MIDDLE POINT &#8212; A Wapakoneta man died of accidental drowning in a pond in Middle Point on Sunday. Van Wert County deputies, along with Middle Point Fire &amp; EMS were dispatched to the 19000 block of Bellis Rd. at approximately 6:45 p.m. Sunday. It was initally believed that a drunk driver drove [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-209831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-15 15:43:06","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209831"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":209832,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209831\/revisions\/209832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}