Overview
- The victim, later identified as 20-year-old Matthew Eric Jenkins, was found unresponsive after a lightning strike and was taken to Celebration Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
- Bystanders, including witness Felipe Costa and a woman, began CPR at the scene before deputies arrived after a lightning strike was recorded on the walking path behind a hotel.
- Jenkins had moved from Shelby Township, Michigan, to Central Florida the week before to begin the Disney College Program and Disney issued a statement expressing condolences to his family and the Disney community.
- Osceola County homicide detectives have opened an inquiry and are awaiting the medical examiner's official determination of Jenkins' cause of death.
- The death is being reported in the context of a recent cluster of lightning fatalities in Florida, a state that leads the nation in lightning deaths, prompting renewed attention to storm safety.