64-year-old drowns trying to save struggling swimmer in Missouri lake, police say

A man drowned after trying to save a swimmer on a Missouri lake, police said.

Steven Puckett, 64, jumped from a pontoon boat into Forest Lake at Thousand Hills State Park near Kirksville to rescue the swimmer and didn’t resurface after going underwater Monday afternoon, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

Investigators said Puckett and a friend rented the boat and passengers on another pontoon boat saw them swimming while passing by, KTVO reported. When the pontoon boat rode by again, Puckett had disappeared and his 67-year-old friend was struggling so they pulled her out of the water, the news outlet reported.

After the woman was saved, a person on the boat called 911 and rescuers rushed to the lake to search for Puckett, Kirksville police said. No one else was on Puckett’s boat, police said.

Puckett’s body was found in the lake Tuesday morning, KTVO reported. He was from Unionville.

His death was the second drowning this summer on Forest Lake, the Kirksville Daily Express reported. A 32-year-old man drowned there on July 14, the newspaper reported.

Forest Lake is in north central Missouri.