According to witnesses, Witness 1 and Witness 2, they along with the victim were going on a fishing trip on the west fork of the White River.  The victim had just installed two pedestal seats in V1 and wanted to try them out.  Once at the pump station access, they partially slid V1 into the water.  They then loaded V1 with a cooler, minnow bucket, two paddles and mounted a Sigma 23lb thrust trolling motor and a 12-volt car battery onto V1.  The victim then stepped into V1 and sat in the rear pedestal seat, Witness 1 then stepped into V1 and sat on the cooler in the middle.  At this point V1 began to take on water and quickly submerged.  Seeing V1 submerge, the three men decided not to fish from it.  When V1 submerged, the cooler, minnow bucket and one of the paddles floated out and across the river.  Victim decided to retrieve the items and emptied the water from V1 and paddled across the river to the cooler.  When he got to the cooler, he was about 20 yards from the bank at which point he reached down to grab the cooler and V1 tipped over.  When V1 tipped over the victim came to the surface but began to flail in the water and then went under the surface and did not resurface.  Witness 1 dialed 911, he told the dispatcher his friend was drowning and that he and Witness 2 were poor swimmers and dispatch advised them to not go back into the water.  Central EMS responded and two rescue swimmers entered the water and found the victim approximately 30 minutes after he had gone under.  They began CPR and the victim regained a heartbeat and was taken to Washington Regional Medical Center.  At 02:00 on 11-12-09 victim was declared deceased.  Also according to Witness 1, there were not any PFDs in V1.

V1 was not intended to carry 3 passengers and the installed pedestal seats moved the center of gravity much higher than intended for this vessel.
FAYETTEVILLE                  