Wedowee-area Lake Wedowee boater recovered after nine-day search following crash
Russell H. Clanton, a 22-year-old man from Oxford, was recovered from Lake Wedowee on July 11, nine days after a single-vessel jon boat crash near the lake’s Big River area in Randolph County.
A dive team found Clanton at 5:36 p.m. in standing timber 61 feet below the lake surface. Crews brought him to the surface at 6:55 p.m., according to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.
The recovery ended a search that began after the July 3 crash and involved Randolph County and neighboring-county rescue, law-enforcement and dive agencies. The search area was near Big River and the R.L. Harris Dam, according to reporting from The Randolph Leader.
What happened July 3
The crash occurred at approximately 5:10 p.m. July 3, when the jon boat struck a submerged stump near the Big River area. Clanton was a passenger in the boat. Jake L. Littleton, 20, of Heflin, was operating it.
Both men were thrown into the water. Littleton was recovered and transported to Wellstar Kennestone Hospital in Marietta, Georgia, for medical treatment. Clanton remained missing until the July 11 recovery.
The reports identify the incident location as Lake Wedowee in Randolph County and do not place it inside the municipal boundaries of Wedowee. The Big River area is directly tied to the Wedowee-area recreation and public-safety environment.
Agencies involved and investigation
The response included the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office, Randolph County Emergency Management, Randolph County Rescue, ALEA and the Christian Aid Ministry dive team, along with other regional agencies identified in the search coverage.
The operation shows the scale of rescue and dive resources used to search Lake Wedowee after a boater goes missing. It also documents the risk posed by submerged structures, such as the stump identified in the initial crash account.
ALEA said its investigation was continuing after the recovery. The approved reports do not state a final cause of death, identify the exact launch point or say whether citations were issued.
No official finding in the reports attributes the crash to alcohol, speed or operator negligence. Those questions remain outside the information released in the approved coverage.
Sources
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