Family and friends are mourning the loss of a Demorest man who drowned Saturday in Lake Hartwell.
Georgia Department of Natural Resources Law Enforcement officials say 45-year-old Eric Garrison Thurmond was swimming in about 15 feet of water near the Holcomb Access Boat Ramp around 8:20 Saturday night when he began to struggle and went under.
“All the indicators from witnesses there say he was fine and appeared to have no issues,” says DNR law enforcement Corporal Craig Fulghum. “They turned around and saw him thrashing in the water and he went down.”
Fulghum says a 16-year old girl in the group Thurmond was with began searching. She found him at the bottom of the lake, 15 feet down, approximately five minutes after he first disappeared.
Witnesses pulled Thurmond to shore.
“They tried everything they could (to save him),” says Fulghum. “CPR was started. First Responders arrived within minutes.” Efforts to revive Thurmond were unsuccessful. He was transported by ambulance to Stephens County Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
While there was some “chop” on the water from boats, Fulghum says it was “nothing extraordinary outside the norm for that time of year.” Officials are now waiting on toxicology results before determining a final cause of death. “Based on the initial investigation at this time,” says Fulghum, “it appears it was just an accidental drowning.”
Corporal Fulghum credits the teen who found Thurmond. “It’s very rare to find a body that quickly. Fifteen foot is a considerable depth. The water being murky, visibility is very difficult,” he says.
He expressed amazement at the young teen’s “wherewithal” to do what she did. “She watched it occur and knew the area.” He adds, “It was very difficult for her to deal with it.”
Thurmond was employed at Ten Cate Nicolon in Cornelia.
His funeral was scheduled for 2 p.m. Tuesday at Fairfield Baptist Church in Demorest.
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