The body of a fisherman who went missing Friday morning on Douglas Lake has been recovered early Friday afternoon.
TWRA officers are investigating an incident that happened near the TWRA Dandridge access area off Highway 92. The officers believe that the victim and another man had been fishing from a boat this morning and at around 9:30 a.m., they became hot and beached their boat on the shore. While the men were out on the bank, the boat began drifting away and the victim, a white male in his 60s, swam out to try and retrieve it. As he got near the boat, he went under and did not resurface.
Rescue crews from Jefferson County recovered the victim with the help of Sevier County and the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office about 35-50 yards from the shoreline. The victim’s identity will be released later.
While this drowning and a few others are not considered reportable boating accidents to the U.S. Coast Guard, it marks at least the fifth drowning that has occurred on Douglas Lake this year:
1) In early May, Richard Rolen, 70, drowned on Douglas after falling from his boat. He was wearing an inflatable life jacket but it appears that it was not properly worn causing it to improperly inflate.
2) In late June, John King, 74, of Englewood Fla., drowned on Douglas Lake after voluntarily leaving a pontoon boat to assist some children who were swimming nearby with life jackets on. Mr. King was not wearing a life jacket.
3) In late June, the body of a man was recovered on Douglas Lake near Indian Creek who may have fallen out of a boat.
4) Just before midnight on July 23, a man drowned on Douglas Lake after falling from a boat that was moored at a community dock at the Boulder Crest Villas.