Missouri man drowns in Beaver Lake on Sunday

A 38-year-old man drowned on Beaver Lake in Carroll County on Sunday.

Alcohol may have been a factor in the death, said Keith Stephens, spokesman for the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission, the agency in charge of the investigation.

An emergency call was made at 2:30 a.m. Sunday, Stephens said. Divers with Carroll County retrieved the man's body about 7 a.m. Sunday.

Stephens identified the man as Russell Charles Johnston of Seligman, Mo.

He was in a 10-foot, flat-bottom boat with three other people, Stephens said. None of them were wearing life jackets, he said.

The four were fishing and the boat overturned, said Alan Bland, park ranger with the Army Corps of Engineers.

"They're lucky to be alive," Bland said of the other three people.

Divers found Johnston's body in 30 feet of water, Bland said. The incident happened between Dam Site Park and the Carroll/Boone water intake structure.

This was the 116th drowning on Beaver Lake and the second this season.

Stacey Hernandez, 21, of Rogers, drowned March 24. Hernandez had been out with a group of four other people, but the canoe and paddle boat they were in capsized and she didn't make it to shore.

NW News on 04/21/2015

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