Man Missing After Jumping Into Lake Lanier To Help Friend: Police

FORSYTH COUNTY, GA — A 28-year-old man from Atlanta is still missing after police say he jumped into Lake Lanier to help a friend in distress, and never surfaced.

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources has been searching for the body of Corey Lamar Brown, 28, from Atlanta, who has been missing since Friday evening.

Game wardens were initially called to the scene of a possible drowning offshore in Lake Lanier near the Vann's Tavern Park area in Forsyth County at about 6:15 p.m. Friday, 11 Alive reported.

DNR Sgt. Lee Brown told the station that a number of people were on board a double-decker pontoon boat with a slide, and they were using the slide to go swimming in the lake.

Sgt. Brown said one of the people using the slide became distressed, so Brown jumped into the water to try to help. Brown, who did not have a life jacket on, also became distressed, Sgt. Brown told 11 Alive.

Four others in the water were able to be rescued.

Sgt. Brown says that Brown may have become fatigued or experienced shock due to the temperature of the water, the station reported.

The search on Saturday morning shifted from rescue to recovery mode, 11 Alive said.

DNR Public Affairs Officer Mark McKinnon told 11 Alive that crews on both days were using sonar equipment to see if they could find Brown in the water. On Saturday, game wardens used sonar through the morning and afternoon hours.

McKinnon also told the station that along with the heavy boat traffic on the lake, an additional difficulty is that the terrain on the lake bottom. It is very rugged, with numerous large rocks. The bottom also varies in that area, running anywhere from 8 feet deep, down to 50 feet deep.