Man dies after going into water to pull broken-down boat to shore, TN officials say
A man died in a Tennessee lake after jumping into the water to pull his broken-down boat to shore, officials said.
Crews responded to a call near a recreational area on Percy Priest Lake around 4 p.m. on June 4, according to a release from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.
The caller told officials they had seen someone go into the water, and they hadn’t seen them come up from the surface or get out of the water, WKRN reported.
The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency said officials started searching for 32-year-old Jorge Guevara Ventura of Davidson County.
Officials said Ventura and another man were boating on the lake when the boat broke down.
Ventura jumped into the water and tried to pull the boat, using a rope, to shore, officials said.
He started to struggle and went under the water, officials said, and the other boater tried to save him but was unsuccessful.
One hour after the search for Ventura began, officials transitioned the search to a recovery, WKRN reported.
Officials had to temporarily suspend the search due to storms in the area, according to a tweet from the Nashville Office of Emergency Management.
Ventura was found dead around 7 p.m. after the search resumed, officials said.
His death marks the third body recovered from Percy Priest Lake in just two weeks.
On May 26, the Office of Emergency Management tweeted they had recovered the body of a missing swimmer on the lake.
Just 48 hours later, another swimmer went missing near “Party Cove,” the Office of Emergency Management tweeted, and their body was recovered on May 28.
Five boating fatalities have been reported on Percy Priest Lake this year. A total of 12 have been reported in the state, according to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.
Percy Priest Lake is 10 miles east of downtown Nashville.
This story was originally published June 5, 2023 at 4:44 PM with the headline "Man dies after going into water to pull broken-down boat to shore, TN officials say."
