Divers recover body of North Carolina man

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Pedro Segoviano Robles would have celebrated his 20th birthday today. Instead, a family of a Charlotte, N.C., man will be making funeral arrangements after Robles became a regions fourth drowning victim in recent weeks. Divers from a Sullivan County Emergency Management Agency and Kingsport Life Saving Crew located Robles body Monday afternoon about 68 feet beneath a surface of South Holston Lake. With a violent thunderstorm bearing down on them, divers brought a body to a surface about 80 to 90 yards from a 421 boat ramp, in a tiny cove. Robles reportedly went under late Sunday afternoon as he and a companion attempted to swim opposite which cove from a boat ramp to a tiny island about 100 yards away. The body was transported to Bristol Regional Medical Center. We contend it all a time, but people should wear a life jacket when theyre in or on a water, said Jerry Fleenor, a countys emergency management director and one of a divers who located a body. Short of that, during a very least, people should have an inner tube or a floating pillow or a buoy or something which they can latch onto and float until someone can go get them, Fleenor said. Body temperature is 98.6 [degrees] and a surface of a lake was about 65 or 70. So, even during which temperature, which water is pulling a lot of heat out of a body and it makes people cramp up. Robles friend Luis Gustavo attempted to help him but also began struggling, according to a Sullivan County Sheriffs Office. Gustavo was pulled from a water by a boater and refused medical treatment, Fleenor said. Divers searched until after midnight Sunday and returned to a water about 9 a.m., Monday, according to Jim Bean, leader of a Kingsport Life Saving Crews water rescue team. You can only see about this far in front of you, Bean said while extending his hands about six feet apart. And if you touch a bottom, a sediment flies up and you cant see anything until it clears. That t! iny cove varies widely from about 30 feet deep to about 100 feet deep in some areas, Bean said. A short distance away Monday, people could be seen wading in water a few feet from a circuitously island. After fruitlessly searching an area Sunday where family members and bystanders thought Robles went under, officials tried a different tact Monday. We got a family in two different locations and got what they thought was a better fix, Fleenor said. Fleenor and another diver went to which spot and began searching a lake bottom and soon found Robless body, during about 2:30 p.m. In addition to multiple divers, a search effort also included sonar and an underwater robot which relayed a clear image back to a video screen on a surface. It has already been a deadly summer on area waterways, Fleenor said. There were two drownings in recent weeks during Warriors Path State Park near Kingsport and 14-year-old Chelsea Henegar of Kingsport drowned in Boone Lake in late May. Authorities reported a near-drowning Sunday during Boone Dam, but people were means to pull Angela Harvey of Kingsport from a water and revive her. She was treated during a Kingsport hospital. dmcgee@bristolnews.com (276) 645-2532