The body of a 9-year-old boy was recovered from a Florida lake days after he fell off of his dad’s boat and was struck by its propeller, deputies said.
Polk County deputies said the boy and his two brothers were with their father on Lake Annie south of Dundee on Saturday, Nov. 26, when the boy fell off the pontoon boat. The boy fell over the front of the boat and was struck by the propeller.
His father immediately jumped in the lake to find him while a brother called 911, according to a news release from the sheriff’s office. The boy was not wearing a personal flotation device when he fell, but he was not legally required to have one on.
Deputies arrived at the lake just before 3 p.m. and immediately dispatched boats to search for the boy, the sheriff’s office said.
The boy’s shirt was found wrapped around the boat’s propeller, Sheriff Grady Judd said in a Facebook video.
“It’s a tragedy, and an unimaginable nightmare for the family of the boy,” Judd said in the release.
After almost three days of searching, the boy’s body was recovered from the lake on Tuesday, Nov 29. His identity has not been released.
Lake Annie is about 60 miles east of Tampa.
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