The body of a 28-year-old Atlanta man was found Saturday in a small lake, Gwinnett officials said.
Andrea Wilkerson told Channel 2 Action News she was on a boat with her fiance, Shaun Milligan, and her 10-year-old son when both adults fell in the lake.
Wilkerson said Milligan came up from behind her laughing, causing the two to fall in the water. She tried to help him before he went under water, Wilkerson told the station.
"I look back, and it's bubbles, bubbles, bubbles," Wilkerson said.
The couple and Wilkerson's 10-year-old child were on a pontoon boat in Lake Lucerne, a 40-acre body of water located off U.S. Highway 78 near the Yellow River Game Ranch, when the adults went overboard at about 7 p.m. Friday, said Gwinnett County fire Capt. Tommy Rutledge.
The adults had been drinking and were not wearing a life vests, Rutledge said. Neither the man or the woman are the owner of the pontoon boat, he said.
The woman surfaced and was rescued by the first firefighters on the scene using a throw rope bag. The man surfaced briefly and was flailing in the water before witnesses lost sight of him, Rutledge said. Gwinnett rescue personnel and divers from DeKalb County combined in the rescue efforts, but the stormy weather halted the search around 9 p.m. Friday.
"Firefighters had to retreat from the water due to the lightning storm," Rutledge said.
Gwinnett search crews returned to Saturday morning at 9 a.m., said Rutledge. The search was aided by a Forsyth County dive team. The body was found at about 11:30 a.m.
Rutledge said the lake is shallow, not more than 15 feet, but the water is very murky and that made the search difficult.
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