Local girl, 6, drowns at Gary beach

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Marche Wilburn, a six year-old girl who drowned at Lake Street beach in Gary, IN. | Jean Lachat~Sun-Times

Updated: July 18, 2011 2:07AM

Six-year-old Marche Wilburn and her siblings were thrilled when their mom surprised them by telling them she was taking them to the beach Saturday night.

But joy turned to tragedy a short time later, when the little girl’s body was found in Lake Michigan at Lake Street Beach in Gary, the victim of a drowning.

Taking the kids wasn’t initially a part of the plan, said her mother, Robbins resident Toshia Donerson-Wilburn. She said she and her girlfriends once a month make plans to spend a day together, but this time they decided to bring the children along.

“They were really excited,” said Donerson-Wilburn, whose other children are ages 12, 9 and 8.

In all, the group of nine kids and eight adults arrived at the beach around 4 p.m. The beach was crowded because of an air show that had taken place earlier, Donerson-Wilburn said. The kids were all having a great time the first couple of hours.

Then, Donerson-Wilburn said she became concerned when some of the kids started venturing farther out in the water, and she walked out to the water to tell them to come closer in. Then she looked along the beach and didn’t see Marche.

Donerson-Wilburn said she told a fireman on a jet ski her daughter was missing and was wearing a pink Minnie Mouse swimsuit. Donerson-Wilburn didn’t think Marche was in the water but rather lost along the beach. The fireman and her girlfriends looked on the beach but couldn’t find her, she said, and she then told a police officer on a Moped her daughter was missing.

“They made everybody get out of the water, and they closed the beach,” she said. “They went in. It was not even like two minutes, they found her, and she wasn’t that far in. She was limp.”

Gary police said medics performed CPR on Marche and she was taken to Methodist Hospitals Northlake campus in Gary, where she was pronounced dead.

Donerson-Wilburn, who said she didn’t realize lifeguards weren’t on duty at the beach after 6 p.m., said she thinks Marche, who didn’t know how to swim, may have tried to follow the other taller kids out in the water, tripped and panicked. She said she wouldn’t have allowed her kids in the water if she’d known lifeguards weren’t on duty.

“She was a very, very happy child,” she said as she reflected on Marche’s short life. “She was always smiling. She was never sad, never. She had a bubbly personality. She loved to talk. She’d have a story every time she came from school or camp. She loved to play with her Barbie dolls and her Barbie house.”

Marche just completed kindergarten and was to attend first grade at Childs Elementary in Robbins next month.

Contributing: Post-Tribune, Sun-Times Media Wire