Overview
- Bystanders taking shelter from a storm on a walking path behind a hotel in Celebration found a 20-year-old man unresponsive after a nearby lightning strike on Tuesday and began CPR before deputies arrived.
- The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office and local reports identified the victim as Matthew Eric Jenkins of Shelby Township, Michigan, who had moved to Central Florida last week to begin the Disney College Program.
- Jenkins was taken to AdventHealth Celebration, where hospital staff pronounced him dead after emergency resuscitation efforts.
- Osceola County detectives are investigating and have referred the case to the medical examiner, which has not yet released an official cause of death.
- Disney expressed sorrow in a statement and Jenkins’ family thanked the bystanders who tried to help, while witnesses and local media emphasized the need to seek safe shelter during sudden storms.