Memorial Day was marked by tragic water-related incidents in the tri-state area that ended in fatalities, including a deadly jump from a waterfall in DeKalb County, Alabama, that left one man dead.
Authorities said 41-year-old Georgia resident Joseph N. Cantrell died Monday after reportedly jumping from DeSoto Falls in Alabama's DeSoto State Park east of Fort Payne.
"He apparently jumped from the upper area of the falls," Alabama State Parks director Greg Lein said Tuesday. There were no reports of an intent on Cantrell's part to harm himself and it appeared to have been an intentional act, Lein said.
Lein said the incident call came in around 11 a.m. CDT Monday.
The body of a Cleveland, Tennessee, man was found late Tuesday after he disappeared Monday afternoon on the Ocoee River in Polk County, but Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency officials said there were no other reported fatal accidents on the holiday weekend.
TWRA spokeswoman Mime Barnes said in an email that, although officers were busy on the water, there were only a few minor injuries across the state.
She said there were 20 people cited for boating under the influence, and she warned boaters to "wear a life jacket and never operate a boat while drinking. Always have a designated driver."
In Alabama and Georgia, however, there were a number of other incidents involving injuries and fatalities over the holiday weekend.
Troup County, Georgia, sheriff's officials said a man drowned Monday when he jumped into a lake to save his 64-year-old father who had accidentally fallen in, according to the Associated Press.
Officials said the body of 34-year-old Jeremiah Israel, of Jonesboro, was recovered on Monday. Israel jumped into West Point Lake from his boat to save his father around 12:30 a.m. Monday.
The lake lies about 80 miles southwest of Atlanta.
Sheriff's officials said other boaters were able to pull the father from the water. He was treated at a hospital and released.
Rescue crews found Israel's body around 10:45 a.m.
Saturday evening, a 12-year-old boy from the Vinemont, Alabama, area was killed while tubing on Smith Lake near Goat Island in Madison County, according to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.
Christian Hart had been tubing with two other children when he was hit by a boat near the Goat Island area of Smith Lake. The single-vessel crash happened at about 6 p.m. Saturday.
In Valhermoso Springs, Alabama, a man riding a personal water craft drowned after falling into the Tennessee River near Talucah Landing, according to WHNT News 19. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency confirmed it was investigating a boating accident in the area. Boaters found him in the water and brought him to shore at Triana boat ramp on Record Street, the news station reported.
And in Gainesville, Georgia, over the holiday weekend, authorities said two people drowned in unrelated incidents on Lake Lanier. News outlets reported 30-year-old Reginald Terrell Whitehead of Perry was found dead after a personal watercraft he was riding overturned near a boat ramp. Divers recovered his body late Saturday.
Sgt. Stephen Wilbanks of the Hall County Sheriff's Office said Whitehead was not wearing a flotation device and couldn't swim. Lake Lanier is located about 60 miles northeast of Atlanta.
Whitehead died hours after authorities pulled the body of 61-year-old Michael Thompson from the water near his boat dock on Lake Lanier on Saturday morning. The Hall County Sheriff's Office said in a news release that a family member discovered Thompson's body.
But at least one emergency crew answered a call on Memorial Day that had a happy ending.
In Winchester, Tennessee, the Franklin County Rescue Squad's dive team on Monday took the plunge in Tims Ford Lake in search of a retired veteran's wallet and keys after his family members contacted them.
After a short search, they located the wallet, "as well as a bonus! While searching the guys found a purse under the dock," squad members posted on the agency's Facebook page.
Using the driver's license found in the purse and a Facebook search, dispatchers from the Franklin County communications center contacted the owner of the purse and she quickly responded to the scene to reclaim her belongings, which "she thought she had lost forever."
Squad members didn't get the first names of the man and woman they helped, but noted in the post that the dive team "is improving and producing results in their searches."
Contact Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6569. Follow him on Twitter @BenBenton or at www.facebook.com/benbenton1.