At approximately 2230 hours I was contacted by NRO in Brown County.  NRO advised me that he believed there had been a drowning in Nemaha County earlier in the evening.  NRO  advised that Brown County dispatch had contacted him reference the event.  I ended my conversation with NRO and contacted Nemaha County Sheriff’s Office.  Dispatch put me in contact with one of the deputies at the scene.  The deputy advised that a person had possibly drowned in a farm pond approximately ½ miles south the intersection of 116th road and V rd.  I advised Nemaha County I would be enroute to the location to assist in anyway that I could.  

At approximately 1145 hours I arrived on scene and made contact with Sheriff.  Sheriff advised me that he believed that Victim 1 had possibly drowned in the farm pond.  Sheriff advised me Victim 1’s boat was capsized and that no one had seen Victim 1 since earlier in the afternoon.  While speaking with Sheriff, Brown County Rescue Squad towed the small flat bottom boat to shore.  Sheriff asked if I would be willing to help drag for the body.  I advised that I would assist in the dragging for the victim.  

At approximately midnight we started dragging for the body.  I advised the operator of the boat that I wanted to concentrate on a small area where the boat had been located before the rescue squad had removed it.  Approximately 0035 hours I caught a small portable fish finder from the bottom of the pond.  I advised the operator of the boat to continue going back and forth in the area where we had located the fish finder.  At approximately 0045 hours I was able to catch Victim 1 and bring his body to the surface of the pond.  Once his body was on the surface of the pond I held onto the body by holding onto the victims’ sweatshirt.  I advised the operator of the boat to back slowly toward the shore where we would remove the hook and then remove the body from the water.  

Once we made it to the shore emergency personnel removed the body from the water and placed the body in a body bag.  During this time it was noted that the hook had snagged on the right thigh of the victim.  A knife was used to cut loose the hook from the victim’s denim jeans.  

After the body was removed from the scene Sheriff and I looked the boat over for damage.  The boat was a 14 foot flat bottom jon boat, the boat had a tiller style 7.5 horse power Mercury motor attached to the transom.  The throttle had been broken off and was lying in the boat.  When the boat was retrieved it was drug completely onto shore with the motor dragging on the bottom. During this time the transom and motor would have been dragging on the bottom which was consistent with the tiller handle being broken off of the boat.  Upon further inspection it was found that the gear shift was in a forward position, which is not consistent with a boat being pulled to shore.  One possible explanation is that the victim could have been operating the boat motor, tried to turn too sharp and possibly overturned the boat.  This would be consistent with someone that had just purchased the boat and was unfamiliar with how the boat would handle when the boat was under power.  It was noted that the victim had purchased the boat the day before and had spent the morning of the incident working on the boat.  No life jackets were located at the scene.
Whetmore                      