Officials on Wednesday recovered the bodies of three family members who vanished in a Middle Georgia river the evening before, the latest tragedy in a deadly week on the state’s waterways.
A 28-year-old man and a 7-year-old girl were pulled from the Amerson River around 10 a.m. Wednesday and were declared dead upon removal, Macon-Bibb County spokesperson Chris Floore said in a statement to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. They were later identified as Johnny Collins III and Summer McRae.
The search then continued for a 10-year-old girl who was with the group when the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office said all three “suddenly went under” around 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. Shortly before 3 p.m. Wednesday, Floore said Skyler Worthen was pulled from the river. She was pronounced dead by the county’s coroner.
The three had been in Amerson River Park, which is just off I-75 in Macon. Authorities said they were described to search crews as members of the same family, but their exact relationship has not been disclosed.
Dive teams had to call off the search late Tuesday and resumed Wednesday morning. The park was closed as crews looked for Worthen, but Floore said it would reopen Thursday morning.
The sheriff’s office and the Macon-Bibb Fire Department were 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 been only 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 over the July 4 holiday weekend, 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.
— Staff writer Caroline Silva contributed to this article.
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