Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 15, 1993 TAG: 9307150045
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LON WAGNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: COOL BRANCH LENGTH: Medium
But apparently neither her skill in the water nor the life jacket was helpful; scuba divers worked late into the night Tuesday and throughout the day Wednesday searching for Nyssa's body.
Family members and rescue workers had little doubt that the girl who had come from Indiana to visit her father had drowned.
"She loved the water," said Dale McFaddin, the girl's father, who lives in Pittsylvania County. "She's been swimming since she was 2 years old."
McFaddin and Nyssa's stepmother, JoAnne, sat on the bank of the lake Wednesday, watching teams of divers plunge into the 60- to 100-foot-deep water to look for the girl. She fell overboard near the confluence of the Blackwater and Roanoke river channels, a spot identifiable to boaters by the B1 channel marker.
Nyssa was on the pontoon boat with her aunt, a male friend of her aunt, and a baby. The foursome was coming in from an afternoon on the lake when Nyssa, riding in the bow of the boat, climbed over the railing and slipped.
The girl's life jacket came off as she fell underneath the boat. Game and Inland Fisheries Capt. John Heslep said investigators are not sure if the life jacket was fastened improperly or if it came off because it got hooked on part of the boat.
"From what they told me last night, she fell off the bow, went under the boat. . . . They said they heard a `thump,' " McFaddin said. "She probably got knocked out."
The search has been helped by unusually good visibility of 5 feet or more at depths below 50 feet, Heslep said. But divers from the Scruggs Diving Team, Franklin County Sheriff's Department and Game and Inland Fisheries were having difficulty searching through the submerged trees on the lake bottom.
Rescue attempts were called off Wednesday evening and scheduled to resume today.
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB