Dad’s body found after he fell into lake while fishing with daughter, Georgia cops say
The body of a missing dad was found after he fell into a Georgia lake during a fishing trip with his daughter, officials told multiple news outlets.
The two were on Lake Sinclair when their boat hit a log, tossing the dad into the water on Tuesday, March 22, WMGT reported.
“She said she’d tried to keep her father up the best she could,” Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills said, according to WMAZ.
Officials told news outlets the daughter couldn’t hold onto him, and the two eventually went under the water. After she resurfaced, she swam to shore and called 911 to report that her 42-year-old dad may have drowned.
Crews started searching for the missing man at about 11:30 a.m. March 22. But Sgt. Lee Brown of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources said the storms forecast for March 23 might impact the effort, WMAZ reported.
The department in a news release told McClatchy News a sonar search is focused on Lake Sinclair, roughly 90 miles southeast of Atlanta. The area has more than 500 miles of shoreline and offers several waterfront activities, the Milledgeville-Baldwin County Convention & Visitors Bureau said on its website.
The father and daughter started at the Lake Sinclair Recreation Area and entered the Little River portion of the lake before the incident, according to news outlets.
Sills said the man didn’t have on a life jacket, and there weren’t any on the boat. The boat was found roughly 100 yards from where the 18-year-old daughter came ashore, WGXA reported.
As of about 1:45 p.m. March 23, the dad’s body had been pulled from the lake. No charges were expected in the incident, according to the TV station.
The Putnam County Sheriff’s Office didn’t immediately respond to McClatchy News’ requests for information on March 23.
This story was originally published March 23, 2022 at 10:40 AM with the headline "Dad’s body found after he fell into lake while fishing with daughter, Georgia cops say."
