UPDATED: Body Recovered From South Holston Lake

UPDATED:

BY CLAIRE GALOFARO
BRISTOL HERALD COURIER

The body of the woman missing from Lake View Dock for more than two weeks was recovered Thursday, providing a long-overdue resolution for loved ones and rescue teams.

An out-of-town recovery crew, using a deep-water robot, discovered Alice Bachman’s remains at 3:30 p.m., just a few hours after arriving at the dock. She was brought to the surface at 5:15 p.m.

Bachman, 55, of Johnson City, was last seen covering her family boat around 7 p.m. June 23.

“I’ve been involved with these before, but it’s totally different when it’s a familiar face,” said Mitch Skaggs, a local deep-water dive expert who rounded up Thursday’s crew and is a long-time friend of Tom Bachman, Alice Bachman’s husband.

“A lot of tears were shed, there was an unbelievable look on everybody’s face. It’s hard to find words to do that justice,” Skaggs said. “The family’s got a tough road ahead of them. It’s hard to bury someone. They’ve dealt with that once, and now with an actual body they might have to again.”

Tennessee Valley Authority spokesman Jim Allen said Bachman was taken to Bristol Regional Medical Center for an autopsy. South Holston Lake is one of the reservoirs operated by the authority.

After two weeks of failed recovery attempts at the lake, Tom Bachman turned to Skaggs, an old high school classmate, for help. Skaggs said he knew a submersible robot was the best tool, and used his industry connections to find a Michigan-based underwater construction and inspection company, Hibbard Inshore, with the right robot.

The two-man crew, Andrew Fons and Brad Hibbard, traveled 650 miles with a trailer full of high-tech submersible equipment. Once at the lake, Hibbard said.

K-9 dogs and previous recovery operations gave his team a good idea where to look.

The body was discovered just 25 feet from the perimeter of earlier search efforts, Skaggs said, and was about 10 feet from the dock. She was on the lake’s floor, 230 feet deep.

The robot, operated by a joystick, has both sonar and video, and can be directed by an operator at the surface. While the video camera can see only five to 10 feet ahead, the sonar can search hundreds of feet. The search team used one of its smaller units, a 30-pound machine capable of diving 500-feet below the surface.

Steering the machine is not easy. Hibbard has been training on the equipment for 19 years.

The second-generation, family-owned company travels all over the country, primarily working on dams and aqueducts. They said the water current Thursday was light and the water was clear at South Holston Lake.

Jerry Fleenor, director of the Sullivan County Emergency Management Agency, said the county is working on a grant that might allow them to buy a similar piece of equipment next year. The robot, with sonar, would set them back about $40,000.

Allen said the Tennessee Valley Authority often uses similar robots to inspect dams.

Thursday’s finding provides closure for the Bachman family and brings an end to 16 days of recovery efforts for dozens of local volunteers. The operation was largely man-powered by the Kingsport Life Saving Crew, many of whom took vacation days from their full-time jobs to aid in the search.

“There was no discussion of a stop date,” Fleenor said Thursday. “They all came out to help someone they didn’t even know. That’s the beauty of volunteers, that’s what speaks volumes for them.”

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The body of Alice Bachman was recovered from South Holston Lake just after 5:00 p.m. Thursday night, according to Jerry Fleenor, Director of the Sullivan County EMS.

Bachman was last seen on June 23 when was covering her boat.  Crews have been searching for Bachman since that time, using sonar, deep-water cameras, and dive teams. 

A search that lasted for weeks ended quickly Thursday.  Recovery crews say Alice Bachman’s body was found in two minutes after they entered the water Thursday afternoon.  Fleenor says her body was found about 30 feet from where she was last seen covering her boat, but 230 feet below the surface.
 
The discovery happened around 3:30 using a deep-water robot from Hibbard Inshore, a Michigan company that specializes in underwater construction and inspection.

When the new equipment arrived, rescue crews told the Hibbard search crew where they thought Bachman’s body might be.  With that information, they submerged the robot, which used sonar equipment to identify points of interest. 
 
Bachman’s body was brought to the surface around 5:15.  Fleenor says he hopes to receive a grant soon that will enable his office to buy equipment similar to what was used Thursday.