Man Drowns While Swimming In Beaver Lake

File photo: The Benton County Dive Team and the county coroner at Beaver Lake, where a man is believed to have drowned.

File photo: The Benton County Dive Team and the county coroner at Beaver Lake, where a man is believed to have drowned.

Friday, July 20, 2012

— Family members and strangers scoured the banks of Beaver Lake yelling “Jeffrey” on Friday afternoon.

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STAFF PHOTO

A Benton County Sheriff's deputy looks across Beaver Lake as a woman cries hysterically Friday after Jeffrey Wayne Wall of Rogers drowned about 20 to 30 yards from the lake’s shore near Old Prairie Creek Road and Black Bass Road east of Rogers.

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STAFF PHOTO

A woman cries hysterically Friday while talking to a Benton County Sheriff's Office deputy and members of the Beaver Lake Fire Department after Jeffrey Wayne Wall drowned at Beaver Lake near Old Prairie Creek Road and Black Bass Road east of Rogers.

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STAFF PHOTO

Margaret McCain; right; points out an area in Beaver Lake to deputy Ivan Torres of the Benton County Sheriff's Office where crews searched for Jeffrey Wayne Wall of Rogers; who drowned Friday near Old Prairie Creek Road and Black Bass Road east of Rogers. People in the area in the water and on a boat searched for the man before Benton County Dive and Resuce arrived.

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STAFF PHOTO

Boaters drop a buoy about 20 to 30 yards offshore while assisting Benton County Sheriff's Office deputies and the Beaver Lake Fire Department searching for Jeffrey Wayne Wall on Friday at Beaver Lake near Old Prairie Creek Road and Black Bass Road east of Rogers.

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Northwest Arkansas Newspapers

Members of the Benton County Dive Team ready gear to recover the body of a man Friday, July 20, 2012, at Beaver Lake.

The group was searching for Jeffrey Wayne Wall, 42, of Rogers, who was last seen just off the shore at a swimming spot east of Rogers near the intersection of Old Prairie Creek and Black Bass roads.

Members of the Benton County Dive Team pulled Wall’s body from the lake about two hours later.

He went under in 6 to 8 feet of water about 20 yards from the shore and never resurfaced, authorities said.

“He had been down for about 10 minutes before we got the call,” said Deputy Doug Gay, public information officer for the Benton County Sheriff’s Office and head of the dive team. “Once we got to the scene, the recovery went pretty quickly. But it’s almost zero visibility in this part of the lake.”

Recreational boaters arrived, poked into the water with a pole and dropped a buoy at the spot where Wall was believed to be about 30 minutes before the first sheriff’s boat arrived.

His body was found almost on target where the boaters marked the water’s surface.

At A Glance

2012 Drownings

There have been four drownings in Benton County this summer:

  • Jerry Wall, 42, of Rogers drowned Friday in the Old Prairie Creek area of Beaver Lake.
  • Dustin Ridenoure, 15, of Gateway, drowned June 2 near Indian Creek on Beaver Lake.
  • Gildardo DeLeon Velazquez, 40, of Decatur, drowned June 3 at Crystal Lake near Decatur.
  • Alfredo Caballero, 16, of Rogers, drowned May 15 in the Horseshoe Bend area of Beaver Lake.

Source: Staff Report

Peggy Foulk of Rogers was at the lake when the incident happened and said Wall and his wife had not been at the lake long.

“They were swimming and (then she) said she couldn’t find him in the water,” Foulk said. “I don’t know how long he’d been under. She was calling 911. I went out looking for him, but I didn’t see any bubbles or anything.”

Robert Jiles of Rogers said he and his group were swimming within 40 feet of the Walls and noticed Wall’s wife kept looking for someone.

“He’d been down about 30 minutes by the time 911 was called and they got here,” Jiles said. “We looked for him, but couldn’t find him. They think he had a seizure and went under.”

Gay said Wall had a history of seizures and health issues possibly contributed to the drowning.

“His body will be sent to the State Crime Lab,” Gay said. “Certainly his medical history is something they’ll look into.”

Gay said Friday’s incident was the fourth drowning the dive team has responded to this year.

“We’re getting way too proficient at this,” Gay said. “People go out for a swim and learn their limitations, but they learn them too late.”