Missing Boater Found Dead in West Alabama’s Sumter County Monday
A boater went missing on the Tombigbee River in Sumter County early Sunday morning after falling overboard, and his body was recovered on Monday.
ALEA said Damond E. Driggers, 48, of Millry, went overboard from a 17-foot aluminum Excel duck boat at around midnight and never resurfaced, according to Captain Jeremy J. Burkett of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.
Driggers was manning an aluminum duck boat on the Tombigbee River in Sumter County. An all-day Sunday search was suspended overnight because of too-dark conditions and resumed on Monday.
Driggers was not wearing a personal flotation device and was not using an emergency cutoff switch at the time of the incident, which occurred near Gainesville in Sumter County.
The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and ALEA's Marine Patrol Division responded and conducted search operations on Sunday. Those efforts were suspended overnight and are set to resume Monday morning.
UPDATE: The 48-year-old was found dead Monday morning and recovered from the river.
Burkett said shortly after 8 a.m. Monday, Driggers was recovered from the Tombigbee River near Gainesville in Sumter County, near the same location where he initially fell into the water.
"ALEA would like to thank and recognize the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), as well as a multitude of volunteers that assisted in the search and recovery effort," Burlkett said.
Nothing further is available as ALEA Marine Patrol Troopers continue to investigate.
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