RedactedNarrative: On May 3, 2015 at approximately 0630 hours I, Ranger First Class, was notified by Corporal of a fatality boating incident on Clarks Hill Lake in Columbia County. Corporal told me I would be the CIRT officer handling the case. At approximately 1000 hours I arrived at the DNR boat house in Mistletoe State Park. Ranger First Class soon arrived, and I assisted with loading sonar equipment into a DNR boat. I then drove the vessel to the incident location near the mouth of Keg Creek and the Savannah River channel. Corporal and Ranger First Class were on the scene when we arrived. I was advised by Cpl. that four men were riding in a vessel traveling between islands in an attempt to bow fish when the vessel they were in sank. Three of the men swam to a nearby island, while one of the men was unable to swim to the island and drowned. I was told the vessel and the victim had not been located. Soon after arriving at the scene, I drove to Wildwood Landing to escort Ranger First Class and the DNR sonar boat to the scene. Throughout the day I assisted with keeping other vessels away from the sonar boat, while Rfc. and Rfc. operated the sonar. The sonar search was called off before sunset, and I was told it would resume the following morning at approximately 0800 hours. I left the scene at approximately 2000 hours.
  
  On May 4, 2015 I arrived at the scene at approximately 0800 hours. I assisted Rfc. with running the sonar unit. At approximately 1000 hours, I left the sonar boat and went to a South Carolina boat landing and interviewed the vessel owner Owner. Owner said he was out on the lake on the night of May 2, 2015 with Operator, Occupant1, and the victim. Owner said they had been bow fishing, and they were idling between two islands when they spotted a large piece of styrofoam floating in the lake. Owner said Operator was driving with a tiller steer motor and pulled over to the styrofoam, so they could look at it up close. Owner said his boat had a large metal platform on the front which he and Victim were riding on. Owner said Occupant1 was sitting on a bench that was attached to the metal platform. Owner said they pulled away from the styrofoam, and shortly after the front of the vessel began rapidly taking on water. He told me the vessel sank out from under them and was gone in a couple of seconds. I asked Owner if they had personal flotation devices on board, and he said they had four wearable and two throwable PFDs. Owner said the vessel sank so fast they did not have time to grab the personal flotation devices. He said when they went into the water, Victim kept saying he was not going to make it. Owner said he told Operator and Occupant1 to swim to the island, which was a few hundred yards away. He stated that he tried to help Victim who was struggling to stay afloat. Owner said Victim eventually disappeared under the water, and he could hear Operator and Occupant1 yelling for him. He told me he swam towards Operator and Occupant1, and they helped him onto the island. Owner said they could see lights from a fishing vessel, and they began to yell for help. He said the vessel came to their aide, and called 911. Owner said South Carolina DNR responded and transported them to a nearby boat landing. He said operator, Occupant1, and himself where transported to the Georgia Regents Medical Center in Augusta and were treated for hypothermia. I asked Occupant1 how big his vessel was, and he said it was a 15 foot Duracraft. I then asked him if he thought it was overloaded, and he replied "no". I then returned to the incident location and assisted with the sonar search. Not long before sunset, Rfc. was able to positively locate and identify the vessel using a sonar…
   
   