EASTON ? A 20-year-old student from the Kansas City Art Institute drowned Sunday in a rural pond just east of the Leavenworth County town of Easton in northeast Kansas.

Santez D. Walker, of Memphis, Tenn., was on a camping trip with friends. Leavenworth County sheriff’s officials said Walker drowned while trying to swim to the bottom of the pond.

Walker is believed to have gotten trapped in a thick bed of moss.

Sheriff’s officials say he was about 50 feet from shore when he told the two friends he was swimming with that he was going to try to touch the bottom.

When Walker didn’t resurface, some of the campers tried searching for him while others called for help.

A rescue and recovery team from Lee’s Summit, Mo., later found him.