A Saturday birthday celebration on Lake Lanier turned tragic when a 27-year-old jumped into the water and didn’t resurface.
The body of Ramon Diaz-Soria, of Atlanta, was recovered Sunday evening. The Georgia Department of Natural Resources told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution they were called to the lake around 6:30 p.m. Saturday. The search area was just north of Vanns Tavern Park.
According to DNR officials, Diaz-Soria was on a rented tritoon boat with friends when he jumped in with his life jacket on, but it wasn’t properly secured. When he went underwater, the life vest floated on the surface.
“Within seconds, they tried to get him,” Diaz-Soria’s friend Melanie Meza told Channel 2 Action News. “After five minutes, there was no luck, so they called out for help.”
The news station reported the group was celebrating a friend’s birthday.
Credit: GoFundMe
Credit: GoFundMe
Rescue crews arrived and started looking for him with sonar equipment. The search was suspended at nightfall and resumed Sunday morning. By 7:30 p.m., Diaz-Soria’s body was found in 60 feet of water, according to a DNR drowning report.
“He’s such a go-getter — whatever he could do to support his family,” Meza said of Diaz-Soria.
His sister, Aby Diaz-Soria, organized a fundraising campaign to support their family, writing in a GoFundMe post that they are “in complete shock.”
“I still can’t believe he’s gone — a piece of me is missing forever," Aby Diaz-Soria wrote. “Anyone who knew him would tell you how kind, generous, funny and full of light he was. He was always looking out for others, always ready to lend a helping hand. Helping people wasn’t just something he did — it’s who he was."
Diaz-Soria is among three people who have drowned at the lake so far this year, according to preliminary DNR data. That matches the total drowning deaths for all of 2024.
In 2023, 13 people drowned at the lake, an abnormally high number. In the past 10 years, the lake has seen an average of seven drownings per year.
Since record keeping began in 1999, only one year saw no drowning deaths on Lake Lanier; that was in 2013.
Staff writer Taylor Croft contributed to this report.
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