UPDATE: State officials have identified three people who drowned in Lake Lanier over the weekend but are withholding the identity of a man whose body was recovered today from the Chattahoochee River until his next of kin is notified.
Leonel Torres, 50, and Elton Torres, 15, of Lilburn were the father and son who drowned while playing on an island in Lake Lanier in Forsyth County, said Mark McKinnon, spokesman for the state Department of Natural Resources.
McKinnon identified Beto Silva, 20, of Peoria, IL as the man who drowned when he fell off a sandbar and slipped into deep water while walking to an island near Old Federal Park. Rangers again used sonar to locate the body which was recovered by Hall County divers.
Silva’s permanent address was in Peoria but he lived part of year with a brother in Gainesville, McKinnon said.
Officials still aren’t releasing the name of a man who drowned while swimming in the Chattahoochee River in Fulton County whose body was recovered today, McKinnon said.
The man got into the river late Sunday, reportedly to swim, but did not resurface late and the search was postponed because of darkness, McKinnon said. The man’s identity will be released after his next of kin is identified.
ORIGINAL REPORT
A father and son drowned in Lake Lanier on Sunday afternoon, authorities said.
Rescue crews were called to the area of Buoy 13, also known as 3 Sisters Island, around 2 p.m., Channel 2 Action News reported.
A 51-year-old man and his 15-year-old son had taken a boat the the island and were playing ball when the son went into the water to retrieve the ball, the Department of Natural Resources said. When the teen started to struggle, his father jumped into the water and neither resurfaced.
They were found and pulled from the lake more than 30 minutes later and transported to Northeast Georgia Medical Center, officials said. Neither one survived. Their names are being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
The DNR is investigating the incident.
The Sunday evening drowning of a young man at Lake Lanier brought to three the weekend’s death toll at the popular reservoir north of Atlanta.
A father and son drowned in Lanier on Sunday afternoon, authorities said.
Rescue crews were called to the area of Buoy 13, also known as 3 Sisters Island, around 2 p.m., Channel 2 Action News reported.
A 51-year-old man and his 15-year-old son had taken a boat the the island and were playing ball when the son went into the water to retrieve the ball, the Department of Natural Resources said. When the teen started to struggle, his father jumped into the water and neither resurfaced.
They were found and pulled from the lake more than 30 minutes later and transported to Northeast Georgia Medical Center, officials said. Neither one survived. Their names are being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
The DNR is investigating the incident.
A couple of hours after that incident, rescue crews were called to Old Federal Park, where a man drowned while attempting to walk across a sandbar to a nearby island, Channel 2 reported.
“If you step to the left or right off of that area, then you are in 20 feet of water, and apparently that is what happened,” said Hall County Fire Marshal Scott Cagle, adding that the victim couldn’t swim.
“His brother immediately tried to jump in after him and tried to get to him,” Cagle told Channel 2. The brother took in water and also became distressed, but was able to make it to safety, according to Cagle.
The victim’s body was recovered about an hour later. His name has also not been released.
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