Teenager drowns in NE Ga lake

An 18-year-old man drowned while duck hunting near the border of Georgia and North Carolina.

On Saturday, Nov. 18, Clay County, North Carolina 911 dispatchers received a 911 call reporting a drowning in a remote section of Lake Chatuge.

The area is inaccessible by automobile and is offshore from government land just north of the Georgia state line.

A Clay County Sheriff’s Office sergeant and a volunteer took a boat to the location of the drowning.

At about 11:20 a.m., Clay County Sheriff Mark Buchanan and another volunteer also arrived by boat.

They learned the victim, Trenton Daniel Johnson, 18, from Ellijay, was duck hunting with Carson Bentley, also from Ellijay.

Bentley told deputies that after downing a duck, he and Johnson were in the boat and he began to start the boat motor.

At that time, Bentley looked up and saw Johnson topple head-first into the water.

Bentley said he jumped into the water and tried to get a life jacket on Johnson, but was unable to do so.

The sheriff and sergeant could see Johnson’s boots suspended about four feet below the surface of the water and they retrieved his body.

Johnson drowned in water that was between 10 and 12 feet deep and about 40 to 50 feet away from the shoreline.

The Clay County Sheriff’s Office urges anyone boating to always wear a life jacket, especially this time of the year when cold water makes swimming more difficult.

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