According to the Stewart County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO), July 4, about 6 pm, a call came into dispatch about a possible drowning at Gray’s Landing near the boat ramp. Deputy Justin Mills made contact with a 28 year old white female, Christy Hogan, at the boat ramp. She told Mills, her fiancé, 40 year old white male, Michael Riddle, of Gleason, was out about 50 feet from the bank with her daughter, who floated back to the bank but he did not.
Unfortunately, Riddle did not make it back. Stewart County Fire Rescue (SCFR) had boats and dive teams in the water. Chief Ethan Luffman said grid searches using sonar were initiated within 35 minutes of the call. He said divers conducted a targeted search and Riddle was found about 60 feet from shore. Luffman said SCFR had 12 people involved, SCSO nine, TWRA had seven, SCEMS had three and USFS (LBL) had three and others assisted. There were drones, several boats and a total of 43 first responders involved in the search. Mayor Robert “Boo” Beecham said he and his wife took food to the first responders down there and a huge storm blew up. Beecham said, “I started unloading the food and like three minutes later, one of the guys radioed into the command center and said, we got a hot one coming boys. You better get off the water. So within five minutes, it was right on top of us.”…