Body Of Missing Man Pulled From Lake

LAUDERDALE LAKES (CBS4) – A family and a community are mourning the loss of a beloved husband, father and minister.

Lloyd Newman, 72, was last seen by his neighborhood friends on Friday.

Sunday afternoon a neighbor found his body floating in a backyard lake in the 4100 block of NW 49th Terrace in Lauderdale Lakes.

Newman was known to family, friends and neighbors as a meticulous, healthy and goal oriented person. That's why they knew something was seriously wrong when he didn't finish washing his car in his yard Friday afternoon

"The water was still running, the car was half washed. It's like he vanished," said family member Yolanda Folks.

His family, along with Broward Sheriff's deputies and neighbors, searched the neighborhood for Newman. It was his neighbor, Ruben Gongorra, who noticed Newman's body floating in the water on Sunday morning.

"I saw him in the water with his hair above the water line, hands in the air reaching out to somehow hang on to something," said Gongorra.

The Newman family is left a lot of questions. They wonder why he went near the water, an area he often went to pick fruit off of his trees.

"What distracted him? What drew his attention? How did this happen," said Gongorra.

Family and friends said Newman dedicated his life to teaching in Jamaica. Newman also loved learning. He had just received his doctorate in theology at the age of 71. He was a reverend at a local church and an inspiration to many like Delroy Hibbert.

"Me as a younger person, he made me want to go further seeing an older man like that trying to get higher in his education," said Hibbert.

Newman's death is difficult for his wife and five children. They were looking forward to being with the couple's 12 grandchildren for a big holiday celebration later this month.