For one former UNCW student, the recent “Lord of the Rings” movie trilogy sparked memories of an old friend, and an old mystery. Sept. 16, 1986 marked the drowning death of Stephen Praisner, a former UNCW student. “It was a real shock. I heard about ‘the guy who drowned in the pool,’ but had no idea it was him. A day or two later, I saw his photo on the front page of the Seahawk,” said Roger Alford, who knew Praisner. Alford attended UNCW as well. “Stephen used to swim laps every night in the pool. One morning, just a few months after the fall semester of when the pool was opened, he was found at the bottom of the pool,” Alford said. Patricia Leonard, vice chancellor for student affairs, was on staff here when the incident occurred. According to her, lifeguards were on duty at the time of the accident. “Absolutely no foul play, alcohol or drugs were involved,” said Leonard. After the accident, friends said that someone holding his or her nose under water to see how long he or she could go without breathing could black out while doing so. Leonard thinks that’s what happened to Praisner. When the lifeguards closed down for the night, they did not see Praisner at the bottom of the pool. The night before, Praisner, who was an avid swimmer, was in the pool with lifeguards around and “was fine.” Students found him dead the next day. “It was tragic. Everybody felt horrible. It’s one of those things you don’t know why it happened,” Leonard said. The University Police Department responded to the accident. Dr. William H. Wagoner, chancellor of UNCW at that time, voluntarily turned over all reports to the district attorney’s office for their review. The drowning was an accident. Alford, who now lives in Raleigh with his wife and two kids, wanted to find out what happened with the investigation of Praisner’s death after seeing “The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.” Praisner had encouraged Alford to read the “Lord of the Rings” book. “When I told him that I’d never read Lord of the Rings, he told me that I absolutely had to read it. I bought all four books (starting with The Hobbit).” Praisner “always thought Lord of the Rings would make a great movie,” Alford said. When the films came out, Alford thought about Praisner. Alford had begun an article on Praisner’s encouragement to read the books, but never finished because he did not know what the investigation yielded. Praisner was from New Jersey and loved to read Terry Brooks.