A 29-year-old Oregon woman died of an apparent drowning in a hot tub at a Deer Harbor home, Sept. 30, in mid-afternoon.

Sheriff’s deputies, emergency medical personnel and firefighters responded to the westside Orcas Island home after receiving an emergency call at about 3:15 p.m.

Amanda May Ferguson, a Portland-area resident vacationing on the island with a friend at the time, was unconscious and unresponsive when the team of public safety personnel arrived at the scene.

According to the San Juan County Sheriff’s Department, the person that made the emergency call immediately began trying to revive the woman, without success, after pulling her out of the hot tub. Emergency personnel were unable to resuscitate the woman after they arrived as well, the Sheriff’s Department said.

The 29-year-old Ferguson is the second person to die of drowning in the San Juans in the last two months. Emergency medical responders were unable to revive an 88-year-old man after the vehicle he and two family members were traveling in accidentally hurtled forward from a driveway and plunged into a pond in the backyard of their San Juan Island home in mid-July.

The cause of death of a 51-year-old man whose remains were discovered in early September in an off-trail area near Moran State Park’s Cascade Lake Lagoon has yet to be determined.

Deputy Prosecutor Amy Vira of the county prosecuting attorney’s office, which doubles as county coroner, said Ferguson was alone in the hot tub at the time she was found unconscious by a friend. About one hour had elapsed since she was last seen alive and well in the hot tub, according to Vira.

Prosecuting Attorney Randy Gaylord said Monday, Oct. 6, that local officials should know about whether other factors may have contributed to the death of the 29-year-old woman after results of autopsy are compiled and reviewed. An autopsy was performed by the Snohomish County Medical Examiner, he said.

Gaylord said that drowning is the official cause of the woman’s death pending results of the autopsy, which are expected in about six weeks.