Two bodies recovered from Georgia river as search for 10-year-old continues

Authorities have not released the names of the people or disclosed their exact relationship to one another but said the three had been described to search crews as members of the same family.

Dive teams had to call off the search at 9 p.m. and resumed Wednesday morning. The park is closed as crews look for the still-missing child.

The sheriff’s office and the Macon-Bibb Fire Department are being assisted by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources in the search.

So far this year, 46 people have lost their lives on Georgia waterways, according to the DNR.

On Tuesday, another water mishap took the life of a 5-year-old boy from Cumming after he wandered into Lake Chatuge in far North Georgia and couldn’t get out.

The lake rides the border with North Carolina, and the site where the child fell in was in the Macedonia area, south of Hiawassee.

The boy, whose name has not been released, was on vacation with his family when he slipped away unnoticed, Towns County Coroner Tamela Cooper told the AJC.

It had only been a few minutes, and the family called 911 when they couldn’t locate him. Soon after, authorities found him in the lake. He was rushed to a hospital, but it was too late.

“Our EMS, sheriff’s office, and first responders did an amazing job trying to save this little boy,” Cooper said. “He’d just been down too long.”

Several of the state’s other recent water deaths occurred July 4, including a 4-year-old girl who went underwater on Lake Oconee when a pontoon boat overturned with 12 people aboard.

The Macon incident remains under investigation, and anyone with information is asked to contact the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office at 478-751-7500.