8:30 p.m.Napa County Sheriff’s detectives continue to investigate the drowning of a Napa teen at Pope Creek Bridge on Sunday, a day before her 14th birthday.

Erin Brookman was last seen in the water late Sunday afternoon. She went under and did not resurface just around the time a friend appeared to be struggling in the water, sheriff’s Capt. John Robertson said Tuesday.

A Sunday search near the area where the Vintage High School freshman went under did not locate her body. The Napa County Sheriff’s Dive Team returned to the lake on Monday morning and recovered Brookman’s body very near to where she went under, Robertson said.

In information from the sheriff’s department updated Tuesday, Robertson said Brookman and a female friend were swimming in about 30 to 40 feet of water outside the temporary barricade directly under the Pope Creek Bridge.

Bureau of Reclamation officials set up the barricade to scale back activity near the bridge, a popular area for boaters, on holiday weekends.

There were several boats in the area where the girls were playing, he said.

“The girl’s mother was on one of those boats,” he said.

Robertson said the Brookman’s friend started showing signs of distress,

appearing to be sick. “She was near the stern of a boat. We are investigating if the girl might have been suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning emitted from the running engines of the idling boats.”

While people in the boats attended to Brookman’s friend,

Brookman must have slipped under the water and did not resurface, Robertson said. “There was a lot of commotion going on with the girl who was sick.”

Brookman’s mother said she had not seen her daughter for about 30 minutes to an hour before the drowning, Robertson said.

Brookman and her mother had just moved to Napa about a month and half ago, said Brian Forrestall, a Napa resident and a longtime family friend.

Monday, the day her body was found, would have been Brookman’s 14th birthday. The family had gone to the lake last weekend to celebrate, Forrestall said.

“She had only gone to school at Vintage for five days before this terrible thing happened. They found her body on her birthday,” Forestall told the Register, his voice choked with emotion. “We went up to the lake with other friends to introduce Erin to friends her own age. She was a freshman at a new school and we were helping her make new friends.”

Forrestall said Brookman was a sports enthusiast.

“She love softball. It was her dream to play professionally. She was a

cheerleader in Pop Warner Football in Rohnert Park, where she and her mother were living before they moved to Napa,” he said. “She was also state wrestling champion in her age group a couple of years ago.”

Forrestall said Brookman was like any other young teen just entering high school.

“She was getting her life where it was supposed to be. She had high expectations for herself,” he said.

At Vintage High School, where Brookman entered the ninth grade this year, administrators acted quickly Tuesday to reach out to her classmates.

“Our ninth-grade counselor is going out to every one of Erin’s classes,” said Vintage Principal Eric Schneider. “The teachers are doing their best as far as their initial communication with students. We don’t want to wait too long before we get (affected students) into counseling.

“One of the most difficult dynamics of the day is the empty desk.”

Sheriff’s detectives are conducting an investigation into the drowning, Robertson said. “We are talking to witnesses and people who were on the boats when the accident happened. We need to get the toxicology test results from the autopsy to determine if carbon monoxide poisoning was a factor.”