FISHERS, Ind. (WTHR) - An autopsy is set to be performed on a 39-year-old Indianapolis man who, conservation officers with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources say, drowned in Saxony Lake on Pennington Road Sunday afternoon.
Officials with Fishers Fire Department says the victim, Anthony Dwayne Pinner was using a paddle board when he fell off it just before 3:30 Sunday afternoon and never came back up.
Saxony Beach and Lake is a 20 acre area where people come to swim and on the weekends can rent kayaks and paddle boards, according to the lake’s website.
Pinner’s family and friends could only watch and wait as area fire departments spent several hours searching for Pinner in Saxony Lake.
Witnesses told emergency crews, Pinner could swim, but fell off the board and was seen struggling in the water before going under.
Someone went in the water to try and help Pinner, but couldn’t get to him in time. When emergency crews got on scene, they found the paddle board, but not Pinner.
“Family was in the area with him," said Fishers Fire Department Captain John Mehling. "Our information is that he was on a paddle board by himself. There was a life preserver attached to the paddle board, but he did not have that on.”
Divers with area fire departments spent two hours in the water, trying to locate Pinner, but were unsuccessful.
“Anytime, especially here in Indiana, the water is dark, so visibility is always very low, so it’s a very tedious, methodical search to our search patterns and our rescue attempts,” said Captain Mehling.
“The water conditions are always a challenge,” he added.
After two hours, crews switched to recovery mode, calling in Indiana’s Department of Natural Resources and sonar technology. By 8 o’clock Sunday night, they located Penner in about 11 feet of water.
“DNR divers were able to locate him using sonar technology and the victim has been recovered at this time,” said Captain Mehling.
It’s not clear, say emergency crews, why Pinner wasn’t wearing a life vest. It’s not known if Pinner was an experienced paddle boarder.
“This is one of those situations where we always encourage people to use flotation devices whenever they’re in the water, even for people who know how to swim,” said Captain Mehling.
“Conditions can change, medical conditions can happen. In this case, we won’t know until after the autopsy as to the exact cause of it, but this is a lesson for all of us,” Captain Mehling added, who said this is the first time anything like this has happened at Saxony Lake.
An autopsy still has to be performed on Pinner, to rule out any kind of medical condition that could have contributed to his death.
