TAMPA, Fla. (AP) A former Florida circuit judge accidentally drowned in a hot tub at her vacation home in north Georgia, according to a coroner.
A neighbor found Tracy Sheehan, 60, face down in the hot tub on Christmas morning after she grew concerned about hearing the judge's dog barking, according to a report in the Tampa Bay Times.
Fannin County coroner Becky Callihan told the newspaper investigators believe Sheehan fell, hit her head and then drowned.
"They found evidence where she had hit her nose,'' Callihan said. "Her glasses had scratched her nose when she went down.''
The newspaper reported that Sheehan had been dead for several hours before the neighbor found her body.
The Medical Examiner's Office of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation made the determination. An autopsy report and toxicology results were not complete Monday.
Sheehan was a respected lawyer and jurist known as an advocate for children. She had worked as a mediator in family law cases since her retirement in 2017 after 11 years as a judge.
