At approximately 17:45 on september 24, 2010, an 18' bombardier jet boat was on mountain island lake in gaston county near mount holly north carolina.  This vessel will be known as vessel 1.  Vessel 1 was occupied by three people.  Operator had invited two of his friends to come with him to mtn island lake to test drive his vessel that he had just retrieved from a boat maintenance facility where it was being worked on due to some mechanical problems.  Operator advised that he and his occupants had decided to stop the vessel to drift for a while and swim.  Operator and his occupants began to jump from the gunnel of vessel 1.  

The other surviving occupant advised that the deceased had jumped from the gunnel three times.  On the third jump, victim struggled slightly and then said, "help me".  Occupant advised he swam to victim and grabbed his arm in an attempt to keep his head above water.  According to Occupant, victim closed his eyes and went under.  Occupant attempted to pull him up again and was unsuccessful.  None of the three swimmers were wearing pfds.  The operator of vessel 1, operator swam to the vessel and threw two type iii pfds to Occupant.  Occupant retrieved the pfd and secured it properly to himself and swam back to vessel 1.  

Occupant then got the vessel's whistle and began blowing it trying to gain attention of a passing vessel.  The passing vessel stopped and began assisting vessel 1 in the search for victim.  The female passenger of the assisting vessel called 911.  The male operator of the assisting vessel and his five children secured type iii pfds and all jumped into the water and began swimming to search for the now missing victim.  At approximately 18:30 i was called to the now accident scene and began my interview of the occupant and operator of vessel 1.  

At approximately 21:30 the search and rescue had been posponed due to the darkness until september 25th at 8:00.  The search resumed at 8:00am with divers from multiple rescue agencies.  The body of victim was recovered between 15:30 and 16:00 on 9/25.  There appeared to be no signs of trauma on the body in any of the vital areas and foul play is not suspected.  During my interview of me. Occupant on the 24th, he advised that the deceased, victim had told him that he had been to his doctor on the 17th of september and had been diagnosed with asthma.  A report from the medical examiners office has not been completed at this time.  There is also no suspision of alcohol or drug use that attributed to the cause of this accident.

MOUNT HOLLY                   