Search for man missing on Lake Sinclair to resume Thursday morning
Summary
Recovery crews are beginning day two of the effort to recover the body of a 71-year-old Dublin man missing since Tuesday night on Lake Sinclair. Officials worked through the day on Wednesday at a site they believed to be the […]
Recovery crews are beginning day two of the effort to recover the body of a 71-year-old Dublin man missing since Tuesday night on Lake Sinclair.
Officials worked through the day on Wednesday at a site they believed to be the location of the body of Joesph Roberson.
According to Captain and Dive Commander Theo Baldwin with Sumter County Fire Rescue, the dive team saw “nothing.”
“They found a little spot probably 30-40 feet off from where we were starting, and I think it ended up being a stump,” he told Lake Country Today.
The location had been pegged by crews Tuesday night. Before sending the dive team down, investigators used a specialized sonar-equipped boat from the Department of Natural Resources to scan the lake bed to try and verify if something was down there.
According to Baldwin, the area the team searched was approximately 53 ft down.
This means it’s back to square one for investigators on Thursday morning.
“We’re going to put the sonar boats back out there,” said Captain Bradley Towe with Baldwin County Fire Rescue. “Once they locate another target, then we’ll put divers back in the water for that target.”
Crews were able to pull the boat from the lake. The 17 ft 1990 Bass Tracker had taken on some water but could be secured, and officers with the DNR’s Critical Emergency Reconstruction Team (CERT) towed it in.
The boat will be vital in determining what went wrong in this case.
The boat’s other occupant, Reba Cherry Roberson, 77, is listed in stable condition in Atrium Health Navicent Baldwin Hospital.
Captain Towe hopes that crews will complete the recovery on Thursday, but “it may take longer; we just don’t know at this point.”