A Lawrenceville father died trying to rescue his son at Lake Hartwell over the weekend, officials said Monday.
Constantin Pascal, 45, was pulling his son on a tube from a boat Friday when the father noticed his child’s life jacket was unfastened, according to Georgia Department of Natural Resources spokesman Mark McKinnon.
“He immediately put the boat in neutral and jumped into the water from the vessel to assist the child, but the man did not resurface after entering the water,” McKinnon said.
According to officials, a passerby rescued the child and took him to the Paynes Creek Boat Ramp at the 56,000-acre body of water, located near the South Carolina border. The boy was not publicly identified and his condition is unknown at this time.
Game wardens and local authorities in both Georgia and South Carolina then searched for the father, who was found by the Elbert County fire dive team at around 6:40 p.m. Saturday. He was recovered in 43 feet of water, officials said.
Lake Hartwell is about 115 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta.
It was the second drowning in northeast Georgia over the weekend.
On Saturday, 12-year-old Brian Ramirez was in a designated swimming area with friends at Lake Russell when he went under the water and did not resurface.
Habersham emergency crews got a call at around 4:20 p.m. about the boy who was swimming near a beach at the 100-acre lake and disappeared from view, the sheriff’s office wrote in a news release. Officials determined he had gone under for more than 20 minutes, McKinnon said.
About the Author
