UPDATE:  TWRA: Male Juvenile Dead After Boat Accident On Boone Lake

UPDATE Monday, August 17:  TWRA Investigators told 11 Connects this morning, the male juvenile was a three-year old.  They said alcohol was not involved in the incident that claimed the life of the child.  TWRA met with District Attorney General Tony Clark and charges will not be filed against the child’s parents:  34-year old David Markland or 31-year old Heather Markland of Gray, Tennessee.  TWRA told us from its standpoint, the investigation is over.
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Washington Co., Tenn.—A young boy, estimated by witnesses at three or four years old, was the focus of a tragic rescue effort Saturday.

“There was a fatality on the lake today,“ Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency Spokesman Brad Daugherty said.  “It was the male juvenile,“ he said.

Daugherty said the accident happened on the Watauga arm of Boone Lake.

Washington County Dispatchers received the call at 4:43 p.m.—one person, pulled out of the water, with serious injuries.

Witnesses described his father as frantic—screaming for a helicopter as he rushed the child ashore.

Police boats from both sides of the Boone Lake met him at the loading dock in Winged Deer State Park.

“He jumped out and a brought a limp child out of the boat,“ Nicole Burnett said. 

She watch in awe alongside family and friends at a birthday party above the water.

“Somebody was yelling, ‘Get a chopper!  Get a chopper!‘  But the paramedics were already here waiting for them,“ Burnett said.

Paramedics put the boy on the ground, gave him CPR, and loaded his still-limp body into an ambulance and drove away, Arianna Solis said.

“We were all in shock, thinking a little boy isn’t going to make it,“ she said.

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