On Sunday, Karen Bryant went to the Aboite Township neighborhood where her missing 16-year-old son was last seen. She described having a bad feeling.

That bad feeling became a parent’s worst nightmare when she found her son floating in a neighborhood retention pond.

“No one immediately followed to check up on him,” she said. “I found him myself Sunday and I pulled him out of a pond myself.”

The mother also said her son, Quinton Reed Bryant was smoking synthetic marijuana, and she wanted to warn other parents about the dangerous drug.

“They were smoking Spice, and he couldn’t handle it,” Karen Bryant said.

Quinton Bryant was with a friend and was supposed to come home Saturday, his mother said. When he still had not returned home Sunday she learned he was with a different friend, and that’s when she called police and reported him missing since Friday, she said.

Quinton Bryant had been smoking Spice – a type of synthetic marijuana – with some friends, had a bad reaction and took off running from the home, his mother said.

“I want the people to be aware of the dangers of illegal drugs,” Karen Bryant said. “It was involved in this.”

Quinton Bryant died from asphyxia due to drowning and his death was ruled an accident, the Allen County Coroner’s Office said in a statement.

Karen Bryant described her son as an upbeat, talkative and caring person.

“It’s just so hard to fathom. I saw him bloated. I saw all that,” she said. “I want people to know the dangers of (drugs.) He was a very rational and smart young man and I know he thought he was in control of this.”

Emergency responders were called to the 200 block of River Rock Pass after someone saw the body floating in a retention pond about 2 p.m. Sunday.

The pond is inside the Hamilton Meadows addition near Illinois and Noyer roads, just east of the Allen-Whitley county line.

Friends described Quinton Bryant as a smart and vibrant young man.

He was going into his junior year at Snider and friends and classmates flocked to Twitter late Sunday after learning of his death.

“Quinton was very outgoing,” classmate and friend Dustin Wells said on Twitter. “He usally talked to everyone. And when he did, he made them laugh ... Everyone loved him as the person he was.”

Teagan Kilbride had been dating Bryant since December and said she saw a side of him that many didn’t see.

“He made me happy. My best friend moved to California and I was really sad. He was the only person I could really talk to about it,” Kilbride said. “He would just make me laugh and forget about it.”

When friend Jon Wayer learned of the circumstances of Quinton Bryant’s death, he was surprised.

“I know people who do (smoke synthetic marijuana). I’m not really fond of it,” Wayer said. “Quinton, he never really smoked and he was a good kid and he knew how to control himself. All it does is take one bad time and look where it can get you. It sends a clear message.”

The funeral for Quinton Bryant is scheduled for noon on Friday at Ellis Funeral Home, 1021 E. Lewis St., with visitation an hour before the service.

dadams@jg.net