Georgia's Department of Natural Resourses is reporting that an elderly Gainesville man is the second drowning victim in the past week along Lake Lanier.
Mark McKinnon's press release Thursday morning indicates that Georgia game wardens, along with the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office and Forsyth FireDepartment, responded to a possible drowning in Forsyth County on Lake Lanier near Keith Bridge Park Wednesday night, June 5, after 9:00 p.m.
Early information reported that an adult man was last seen in the early afternoon at his dock and had not been seen since. A friend of the man saw the man’s golf cart still at the dock and noticed a water shoe floating nearby as well.
Officials say shortly afterward, game wardens utilized boat-mounted sonar to locate the victim, 76-year old Jim Hansard of Gainesville, in 13 feet of water. Forsyth County divers were then able to retrieve Hansard's body.
The exact cause for Hansard's death has not been released. McKinnon says this the second drowning in the past two weeks within Lake Lanier's waters.
