Authorities ID 20-year-old who drowned on Chattahoochee River

A Cobb County man who tried to swim across the Chattahoochee River on Friday afternoon got within five yards of shore before foundering and drowning, officials said Saturday.

Twenty-year-old Devon Gary Harvest was with a friend, said Sgt. Dana Pierce, a spokesman for the Cobb County Police Department. The two waded into the river from its banks in Cobb County, not far from Morgan Falls. They eyed the Fulton side, about 250 yards away, and began swimming.

The duo, police said, wanted to cross the river so they could jump from the rocky outcrops of the Palisades. The area, part of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, is popular with hikers and swimmers.

And they almost made it, officials said. The two neared the far shore at about 7:20 p.m. when Harvest “just gave out,” Pierce said. He was no farther than 15 feet from safety, Pierce said. The other swimmer momentarily grabbed his stricken friend, but couldn’t hang on.

Officials from Cobb County and the National Park Service, which has jurisdiction of that part of the river, began searching for Harvest, a Milton resident, on Saturday morning. The drowned man's friend led them to the spot where he'd slid into the depths.

They found the remains in 26 feet of water, Pierce said.

The Cobb County Medical Examiner’s Office has Harvest’s body and will perform an autopsy to determine the official cause of death, Pierce said Sunday.