On 11/28/2013, the victim left his parents' cabin on Lake Martin at approx. 0500hrs to go duck hunting. Victim drove to the boat ramp on Coosa County Rd 92 on the Oakachoy Creek portion of the lake. He then launched his 13ft Colman Canoe and paddled into a slough that was closest to the boat ramp. Around 0559hrs, Victim sent his father a text message saying he had shot a duck. Shortly after the text message Victim’s father lost contact with his son. I was notified about the missing juvenile by Officer around 1140hrs. I then called the Coosa County Sheriffs Office and was given further information about the situation and its location. I arrived on the scene at approx. 1250hrs and met with Victim’s father, who was in a kayak looking for his son. I had Victim’s father get into my boat and tell me all the information about his son. He then showed me the slough where he found his son's decoy ducks in the water. Just across from the decoys on the shore were Victim's decoy bag, shotgun shells and his type 3 life jacket. I then took Victim’s father to the boat ramp and began my search of the immediate area. 

At approximately 3:00 p.m. Capt. arrived to assist with the search. Other agencies that assisted were the Coosa County Sheriffs Office, Alabama State Troopers Aerial Unit & Highway Patrol, Tallapoosa County Rescue Squad and the Alabama Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Law Enforcement Division. The search lasted until approx. 2100hrs when it was called off due to the deteriorating search conditions. The search resumed at 0630hrs on 11/29/2013 by Capt. and I arrived a short time later. At approx. 1120hrs, Capt. and I located on sonar what looked like a canoe in about 13ft of water. Divers then went down and recovered the canoe which belonged to Victim. Shortly after that at approx 1158 hrs, volunteers with the Tallapoosa County Rescue Squad were dragging in the intimidate area of the canoe and recovered Victim's shotgun from the lake bottom. The shotgun was a Benelli 12ga Super Black Eagle. The shotgun breach was locked to the rear an there were no shells inside the gun. 

Capt. and I continued the search in the area of where the canoe and shotgun were located. We got a couple of sonar hits on what appeared to be a body and marked the spots with floating markers. Divers went down a second time and at approx. 1432 hrs Victim's body was located and recovered. When Victim's body was placed in the rescue boat, I took several photographs. Victim's clothing at time of recovery consisted of only one boot on his left leg, pair of socks, three pairs of pants plus underwear, a tee-shirt, Drake base layer long sleeve fleece shirt and a Drake camouflage parka jacket. Victim had both layers of the parka on at the time of recovery. He also had on his person a  Gerber pocket knife, Costa sunglasses, two duck calls with mini flashlight and whistle on a braided lanyard, car keys and a wristwatch. 

It appeared that after Victim went into the water he kicked off one boot, unbuttoned his pants and attempted to take off his jacket to reduce weight.  Only one sleeve of the jacket was still attached to Victim's left arm and appeared to be caught on his wristwatch. Upon inspection of the 1988 Coleman plastic 13ft canoe, hull # CP226562F888. There were no fractures or holes in the hull, all bracing was intact and there was no hull flotation. Several pictures were taken of the canoe as well. The divers stated that the canoe was upside down on the lake bottom when it was recovered. Based on statements from Victim’s father, the scene and facts gathered, it is believed that Victim drowned after the canoe capsized and sank. The added weight of his multiple layers of clothing, the frigid water and no life jacket were major factors in his drowning.
Equality