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May 9, 2009 11:10 pm US/Central
Teen Drowns After Boat Capsizes In Sabre Lake
(WCCO)
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According to the Le Sueur County Sheriff's Department, three teens went out fishing in a small boat on Sabre Lake near Montgomery, Minn. around 8:30 a.m.
CBS
A Waterville, Minnesota family is mourning the loss of a teenage son after a boating accident.
Three teenagers were out early Saturday morning for the fishing opener when their boat capsized. It happened on Sabre Lake in Le Sueur County.
Two of the teenage boys made it shore with help. Seventeen-year-old Derrick Evans did not survive.
The wind and choppy water made conditions risky out on Sabre Lake Saturday morning, especially for the 12-foot Jon Boat. Other anglers noticed the boat headed towards the trouble.
"We could tell it was a pretty small boat. It wasn't riding very high out of the water. They ended up on the windy side of the lake. It turned out for the worst, it looks like," said witness Nick Meger.
Meger and other anglers soon saw that the boat and the three boys aboard were gone. Emergency crews and other boaters rushed to help.
"One kid was on the shore and there was another fisherman that had the other one pulled out of the boat. One guy held onto the boat," said witness Timm Moravec, who was fishing that morning.
One of the survivors told Moravec the boat took on water.
"He said the waves started coming in the boat and then once you start getting water in the front, it flipped over from the front," recalled Moravec.
But the third teenager, Derrick, was gone. Rescuers tried for several hours to find him and by early afternoon, they recovered his body.
"A really, really nice guy," said Kassie Dudley, a friend of Derrick.
Friends wonder what went wrong, since Derrick was an experienced angler. Witnesses like Meger said it looked like a terrible accident.
"It's just one of them things that you hope never happens it's close to home, but it did this time," said Meger.
Seventeen-year-old Dillon Carlson and 18-year-old Juan Garza survived the accident. The Le Sueur County Sheriff's department said Derrick and Dillon tried to swim to shore, but Juan stayed with the boat because he couldn't swim. Many who tried to help also knew the teenagers. All three are from Waterville. It's hitting the small town very hard.
"I know he's going to be missed. It's really going to be really sad for a lot of people," explained Kassie.
Sheriff David Gliszinksi says there were three life jackets aboard the boat, but no one was wearing them at the time the boat capsized. He added that alcohol was not involved in the accident.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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