By BOB HIGH

Henry Isaiah Lesesne’s health problems are being blamed as the reason the 58-year-old Whiteville man died Friday after he fell from the bank of a pond behind his Slippery Log Road home.

“I don’t have the autopsy report back yet, but I feel sure he fell into the water because of his health problems,” William Hannah, assistant coroner, said Sunday. Hannah confirmed his suspicions early Monday by noting the State Medical Examiner’s office called and noted that Lesesne’s death was from natural causes.

Hannah said Lesesne had a long history of health problems with his heart, and had suffered a stroke. He also had high blood-sugar levels because of diabetes.

Lesesne was seen by a neighbor walking behind his home at 11:30 a.m. with two cane poles, a bait bucket and a five-gallon container to hold his fish. He wasn’t seen for at least two hours and someone went to check on him and found him floating in some heavy vegetation at the edge of the water.

A man with his family drove to the pond where Lesesne went fishing and discovered the victim in the water, about two feet from the shore.

Hannah said the Whiteville Rescue Unit was notified at 2:50 p.m. Friday.

The pond where Lesesne was found is the second of two ponds near his home. “There’s a smaller pond just behind his home, but he went to the second one. He had caught at least one small perch, because we found it on the bank near where his fishing poles were,” the assistant coroner added.