The search has ended for a 44-year-old Illinois man who jumped into Weiss Lake in Cherokee County Saturday and never resurfaced.
Authorities located the Paul Cooke's body shortly before 5 p.m. Monday. Many details are still unknown but crews have been searching for the man since Saturday evening.
Rescue workers say Cooke was one of three people who jumped from a pontoon boat. He was the only one of the three who never emerged from the water.
Captain Danny Smith of the Cherokee County Rescue Service tells FOX6 News the others on the boat waited about calling authorities because they thought their friend might be hiding as a joke.
Smith says authorities gave up on the idea of finding the man alive Monday and the mission became a recovery mission.
Rescue boats from the rescue service were joined today by others from the Piedmont Rescue Squad, the state Marine Police and the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office. The lake, near Leesburg Landing in Leesburg, is still open to regular boat traffic, and rescue workers dragged the lake as people in kayaks, fishing boats, pontoon boats, and personal watercraft drove by.
The area being searched is close to an Alabama Power dam, and Smith says the power company temporarily stopped the turbines until Sunday afternoon. Smith said earlier Monday that the changes in undertow could result the body floating to the surface, and he expected that to happen either Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning at the latest.
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Rescue workers comb Weiss Lake for any sign of a man that jumped off a boat Saturday and hasn't been seen since. Source: Dixon Hayes
Rescuers searched the lake Monday for an unidentified 44-year-old man. Source: Dixon Hayes
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