By Associated Press
Lake Martin, AL – A 13-year-old boy from Chicago drowned at Lake Martin during a weekend outing at the Wind Creek State Park, officials said Saturday.
Alabama Marine Police officer Mark Fuller said the boy and his family were visiting relatives in the Lake Martin area.
Local rescue personnel searched for more than an hour before the boy's body was found around 3:30 p.m. The boy's name was not immediately released pending notification of all his family members.
Rhonda Morris of Sylacauga told The Alexander City Outlook she was walking down to the beach area of the lake when a woman ran to her and told her to call 911.
"She said there was a boy missing," Morris said. "There were two more in the water struggling she was in the water looking for them."
Witnesses said four other children and their father were with the boy at the time of the incident and might have drowned as well were it not for the intervention of two concerned bystanders.
"I got a father and a boy," said Tate Allen, who helped the struggling swimmers along with his son, Justin. "The father was on the bottom of the lake."
Before the father and son team were aware of the final boy in the water, officials told them to leave the scene, they said.
"If it was up to me I'd still be out there," Justin Allen said. "We tried."
Saturday's drowning was the first in Lake Martin this year.