the Grotto Bay hotel met her death by misadventure, a Coroner ruled yesterday.

Miss Felicia Pickney of New York had arrived in Bermuda with her fiance on July 25, 1995 and was scheduled to leave on July 29, 1995.

In a Police statement, Ms Crystal Saunders, who was also staying at the Grotto Bay hotel, said that she went to the pool around 12.30 p.m. on July 27, 1995.

There she saw Miss Pickney who walked by her and sat down nearby and they began to talk.

Ms Saunders said Miss Pickney told her that she had just learned to swim and was asthmatic.

"She (Miss Pickney) got into the shallow end and was doing a forward crawl,'' the statement read. "It looked like she had taken lessons.'' Ms Saunders said that Miss Pickney swam one lap of the shallow end and then floated on her back.

At about 2 p.m. Ms Saunders left the pool and went to make a phone call in her room and was gone for seven to eight minutes. Ms Saunders said she asked Miss Pickney to watch her belongings while she was gone.

When she came back she said that she saw a man get into the pool and pulled (Miss Pickney) out.

"I saw people around her, she was on her back,'' Ms Saunders' statement read.

"People were fumbling with her giving her CPR incorrectly but her stomach was not inflating.'' She said Miss Pickney's fiance became upset when he saw all the people around because they were administering CPR incorrectly.

He moved them back and performed it himself. Two nurses at the scene also gave Miss Pickney CPR until the ambulance arrived 20 minutes later. She was pronounced dead later that day.

King Edward VII Memorial Hospital pathologist Dr. John Winwick said that Miss Pickney had two bruises on her forehead above the eyebrow that were one and half inches in diameter.

Apart from that there were no other bruises although her lungs were waterlogged.

Dr. Winwick hypothesised that her death was consistent with drowning. He said that her bruises could have been caused when Miss Pickney was trying to get out of the pool and bumped her head.

"Her hands might have slipped and she bumped her head which caused her to become dizzy.

"The shock of hitting her head and taking a breath would have caused water to enter her lungs which would have caused death to occur very quickly.'' Coroner Mr. Kenneth Brown ruled that Miss Pickney's death on July 27, 1995 was by misadventure.