Fort Lauderdale drowning victim appeared drunk, report says - South Florida Sun-Sentin​el.com

By Juan Ortega, Sun Sentinel 8:27 p.m. EDT, September 18, 2011FORT LAUDERDALE— The last time anyone saw Jenny Aurelia Perkins alive was on a Sunday afternoon in July, when she was drinking at a beach-side resort bar and planning to compete in a bikini contest, according to the Broward Medical Examiner's Office. At about 3 p.m., Perkins, 35, was asked to leave a bar at Ocean Manor Resort, 4040 Galt Ocean Drive, because she had a "heavy drinking episode" and appeared "extremely intoxicated," a report from the medical examiner said.At 11:30 p.m. that Sunday, July 31, workers cleaning the resort's pool deck found her unresponsive in the pool, clad in a black bikini. They pulled her from the water and tried to revive her, but within minutes, Perkins was pronounced dead. Almost two months later, a Fort Lauderdale police investigation into her death is ongoing, according to Detective Travis Mandell, a spokesman. Officials await results of toxicology tests to verify whether alcohol was in her system. After performing an autopsy, the medical examiner's office concluded she accidentally drowned. "As with any unattended death, our detectives must conduct a thorough investigation and leave no stone unturned in pursuit of the truth," Mandell said. Perkins was a mother of three who worked as a personal trainer, her family said. Her stepfather wonders why she was in the pool. "It's still strange. I know my daughter very well. She could hardly swim at all," said Phillip Fees, of Fairbury, Neb. The inquiry also will examine whether Perkins, whose body had no signs of trauma, died by suicide. Perkins' boyfriend told police she had tried to kill herself more than once, the medical examiner's report said. According to the boyfriend, "it was possible that she would have attempted suicide if she did not get into the bikini contest" that Sunday, the report said. In recent months, a beauty competition with a grand prize of $6,000 was held at the resort at 6 p.m. every Sunday, according to a promotional flier published on Facebook.com. It was unclear if that was the competition Perkins wanted to enter. The medical examiner's report provides a limited account of the day Perkins died. It doesn't specify which bar she was removed from and doesn't elaborate on her intoxication. Ocean Manor Resort's website says it provides dining and entertainment at its Beach Cafe, Bamboo Beach Tiki Bar & Cafe and Tokyo Blue. A manager at the resort could not be reached for comment on Friday, despite several phone messages. Born in Manila, Philippines, on Aug. 31, 1975, Perkins was a good child who tended to be "headstrong," said Fees, her stepfather. In the late 1970s Perkins' mother married Fees in the Philippines, where he was serving in the Navy, Fees said. The family lived on the U.S. Naval Base Subic Bay, Fees said. When she was a child, Perkins was grounded for disobeying her parents. She decided to run away and tied a cloth around one end of a stick to lug around her possessions, Fees recalled. Perkins didn't get far: She walked past two houses, then returned home. "She was a free spirit, and I mean [in] every sense of the word," Fees said. "She liked being outside and doing things all the time. When she set her mind to doing something, she usually tried to do it." By the mid-1980s, Perkins and her family had moved from the Philippines to Houston, where Perkins attended high school and worked part-time at a pizzeria, Fees said. Over the years, she had three children from different relationships, Fees said. "I have known her to be a loving mother who would do anything for her children," he said. Perkins married and moved with her husband to Ohio before they divorced around 2005, Fees said. Then she started dating her current boyfriend, with whom she had a daughter, now 4 years old. Her boyfriend also worked as a personal trainer in South Florida, Fees said. Perkins' boyfriend could not be reached for comment on Friday despite a message left on his phone. jcortega@tribune.com or 954-356-4701 Anonymous