PHOENIX — They went to Show Low Lake, swam for an hour, and left. When they were about to go to bed, they realized one of their own was missing and would later be found dead at the bottom of the lake.
That's what the investigation into the drowning of Christopher Hampton by the Navajo County Sheriff's Office found, according to documents obtained by 12News.
The 15-year-old was a freshman at Cesar Chavez High School. He was taking part in a football summer camp in the White Mountains at Lakeside Blue Ridge High School when he drowned at Show Low Lake on July 17.
Initially, authorities said the football coaches noticed Hampton was missing during a head count. However, the incident report details the adults realized the teen was missing only after one of the boys' teammates told them he was nowhere to be found as they were all walking to go to bed.
The document said a teammate notified Hampton's family he was missing way before the coaches and authorities notified them.
The report indicates William Chipley, the varsity head coach at the time, knew Hampton did not know how to swim.
The last time Christopher Hampton was seen
The time spent at Show Low Lake was supposed to be a "kumbaya" for the 41 boys who were part of the team and had gone to the camp, according to court documents.
"The idea of going to the lake was one the coaches decided on because it was an activity they had done in the past at other lakes," the document detailed.
It was the first day of the football camp. After a day of training, the team went to have dinner, and headed to the lake despite being told by the Blue Ridge High School athletic director he didn't want them to go swimming at Show Low Lake, records said.
During an interview with officers, the athletic director said the Cesar Chavez High School coaches told him they "would not be going swimming and would be going to a campsite." He then told them they wouldn't be able to start a fire because of fire restrictions.
"He cautioned the coaches and the team about swimming the lake due to the possibility of getting tangled up in the moss," the document said about the athletic director. The coaches allegedly told him they would "only get water up to their knees... and splash their feet."
Documents said the team arrived at Show Low Lake at 6:20 p.m. While the coaches told the teens it was not required for them to get in the water, most did. Only about six did not go swimming, coaches told police.
Some coaches watched students swim by the dock-- the only area of the lake where swimming is not allowed, records said. Despite that, coaches allowed the teens to swim.
Some students began swimming to a buoy that was about 25 feet from the dock. One of those was Christopher Hampton, a teammate told police.
That teammate said he and Hampton swam to the buoy together after seeing other teens do it, and said "it did not seem very far."
"By the time we got to the buoy we were both exhausted and needed to rest," the teen told authorities. "Chris hugged the buoy while resting. After a few minutes, I told Chris I was going to swim back, and he said he wanted to rest a little more."
That was the last time anyone saw Hampton alive.
"By the time I got back to shore I was completely exhausted," the teammate said.
While interviewing the teen, the officer asked him to describe how both were swimming. The document said the officer was told Hampton was "doggy paddling."
"Based on the description of how the boys were swimming it appeared neither was a very good swimmer," the detective noted on the report. "For someone with little or poor swimming skills, it would be exhausting" to swim to the buoy.
A coach told authorities he was watching over the boys as they swam, when he saw "a group of kids swim out to a buoy, but he yelled for them to swim back to the dock and shore," documents said.
When coaches realized the 15-year-old was missing
While the 41 teens and coaches were at Show Low Lake, William Chipley, the former varsity football head coach at Cesar Chavez High School, left to get popsicles and drinks. When he got back, they all got out of the lake and walked up a path where the buses and vans they all traveled in were. They enjoyed their refreshments and left, records said.
The teens were supposed to be in assigned seating, but in between stops, coaches reported some of the students moved vehicles. One witness told police that Hampton was assigned to the bus the head coach was traveling in.
A coach "explained he did not understand why it was not noticed there was a student missing from a vehicle on the drive back," the documents said.
The report found coaches and teammates did not realize Hampton was missing until after 7:15 p.m. Coaches went back to look for the 15-year-old and "ended up calling law enforcement."
The authorities mobilized a search team and began looking in and around the lake area.
"William started crying and talking about Chris missing and having to talk to his parents about it," the documents said. "William explained Chris' mother told them he could not swim."
While talking to the coaches, "William made the comment we were searching for a dead body at that point," the detective wrote in the report. "He believed for certainty Chris was deceased in the water during the interview."
The incident report notes no coach saw Chris get in the water, despite multiple of them telling authorities they were keeping an eye on the teens.
A teammate called Hampton's brother to tell him the freshman was missing, who then told his mother. She and other family members drove up that night and arrived at the scene around midnight, the report said.
After an extensive search, a dive team found Hampton's body on July 18 in the lake.
"He had so much potential"
Hampton was a star athlete. He was a wrestler and as a freshman, part of the varsity football team.
"He had great grades," said Benjamin Taylor. "He could have gotten an academic scholarship, a football scholarship, or a wrestling scholarship. He had so much potential. All that was robbed from him."
Taylor is the family's attorney. In August, they filed a $50 million notice of claim against the Phoenix Union High School District, William Chipley, the assistant principal of athletics at Cesar Chavez High School Leonard Doerfler, the City of Show Low, the Recreation Resource Management of Arizona, Arizona Game and Fish, and Blue Ridge Unified School District.
"Chris' death wasn't just a preventable one, it was caused by the gross negligence of the adults who were responsible of taking care of him," the notice of claim states. "It is difficult to imagine more careless behavior by adults tasked with ensuring the safety of minors, than herding them into a dangerous mountain lake with zero supervision and zero safety measures."
Hampton's death was deemed an accidental drowning. The case is now closed and no charges were filed.
The head coach and athletic director had their resignations accepted in September, the Phoenix Union High School District (PXU) told 12News.
In a statement about the lawsuit, PXU said it does not comment on pending litigation.
"We continue to honor the memory of Chris, and keep the Hampton family in our thoughts."