John Monroe Johnson was a 22-year-old midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy and a member of the 29th Company, serving as a company platoon commander. Raised in Pittsburgh and later Chapel Hill, North Carolina, he briefly attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill before entering Annapolis in June 2017. An accomplished mathematics student with a 3.97 GPA and a Trident Scholar, he was widely praised by classmates and officers for his passion and leadership.

On a Monday night in December 2020, while on winter break at a resort hotel pool in Park City, Utah, John told friends he planned to practice breath-holding underwater. He did not surface after about five minutes; friends pulled him from the pool and began CPR until paramedics took over. He was rushed to Park City Medical Center and pronounced deceased. The death was ruled an accidental drowning.

His family includes parents Kim and John and four younger brothers, Vance, Paul, Franklin, and Teddy. At the Naval Academy graduation and commissioning ceremony in May 2021, John was awarded a bachelor’s degree in mathematics posthumously, the diploma accepted by his parents.

Did anyone in Park City that night see or hear anything that could shed more light on what happened?