Woman had panic attack before drowning at Woodward, sister says

Updated story ==> She made it out of the Camp Fire, only to die while swimming with daughter at reservoir

Original story:

The woman who drowned at Woodward Reservoir on Wednesday afternoon was a 34-year-old Escalon resident, according to the Stanislaus County Coroner’s Office.

Stephanie Modena drowned near Muir Point, a campsite area at the southern edge of the reservoir north of Oakdale. Emergency responders arrived to find people performing lifesaving measures, but Modina was confirmed dead at about 3 p.m.

On Facebook, one of Modena’s sisters, Cortney Kennah Modena, posted Wednesday evening that she was at the scene and Stephanie Modena “was swimming with her daughter and started having a panic attack and stopped breathing!”

According to her Facebook page, Stephanie Modena was from Modesto and went to Davis High.

Modena’s was the second drowning at Woodward in a week. About 1:30 a.m. Saturday, 52-year-old Bay Area resident Ricardo Martinez went into the reservoir to swim and never came back, witnesses told deputies. His body was found and recovered about 10:30 a.m.

This story was originally published July 11, 2019 at 8:53 AM.