RedactedNarrative: At around 11:30 on Thursday, February 15, 2018, I received a call from Wildlife Communications with a request to call a citizen who had been fishing on Lake Waccamaw and found a sunken vessel.  At 1143, I made contact with the concerned citizen about the sunken vessel.   I was advised that the vessel looked old, not sure how long it had been there and that there was a New York registration attached to the vessel which was expired.  
  
  At 1146, I requested that a NC Park Ranger from Lake Waccamaw State Park try to locate the vessel while I transported my vessel to Lake Waccamaw for further investigation.   I arrived and started my search for the sunken vessel at about 1225.   After completing one pass across Lake Waccamaw, I picked a Waccamaw Park ranger up to help with my search.  At 1330 we located the sunken vessel where we realized the vessel had not been in the water for a long amount of time.  
  
  After establishing ownership of the vessel, we requested a Brunswink County deputy go to the individuals residence and conduct a welfare check.  At 1425, the Brunswick County deputy was able to establish that operator had last been seen wearing green rain gear and preparing to depart for Lake Waccamaw at around 0730 Thursday morning.  We then proceeded to find Operator's vehicle at the NC Wildlife Resources Commission Access area with no occupants in the vicinity.  At around 1400, I placed a call to the Lake Waccamaw Chief of Police to request that we began a search and rescue for Operator.  Operator's vessel had several fishing poles still attached to the vessel when it was located, as well as a mino bucket with live minos in it.  Gas could also be smelled coming from the vessel.  At around 2030, we called off the search for Operator until the following morning at 0700.  On Friday, February 16th Operator's body was recovered at 1030.
  There were no witnesses that came forward about Operator's incident.  Autopsy reports have not yet been completed.  All reports will be attached when they are received from their sources.
  
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