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Man, 21, killed jumping into Quincy quarry

E-mail|Link June 19, 2009 09:21 AM

By John R. Ellement, George Rizer, and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

QUINCY -- A 21-year-old man died today after hitting his head jumping into a flooded quarry for a predawn swim, apparently slipping on rocks on a rainy night.

The man, Patrick J. Coughlin, had gone to the quarry for an impromptu reunion with three long-time friends, returning to the swimming hole of their childhood. Coughlin and another friend tried to jump off the 15-foot ledge for a simultaneous dive, but he hit his head on the way down and landed in 15 feet of water.

The three friends tried in vain to rescue Coughlin, a Marine veteran from Milton who returned in April from military service in Iraq, according to Norfolk District Attorney William R. Keating. The friends called 911 at 1:51 a.m. Divers and an underwater camera were used to recover Coughlin's body from the quarry near the Granite Links Golf Club at Quincy Hills.

"It's just one of those terrible tragedies," Keating said at a press conference shortly after dawn.

There is no evidence of foul play, Keating said. The state medical examiner will perform an autopsy to determine a cause of death.

Coughlin comes from a family of public service. Two of his uncles -- Detective Leo Coppens of the Quincy Police Department and Deputy Chief Bill Coppens of the Braintree Fire Department -- spoke to reporters this morning near the quarry where their nephew died.

They described him as a young man devoted to his family and friends who interrupted his studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst to serve in Iraq.

"He loved his country. He loved the Marines," Leo Coppens said. "He loved his family more than anything.''