A Bowie man who drowned Sunday morning while trying to retrieve a tool that fell off a sailboat into Lewisville Lake has been positively identified as Joel Ray Mills, 21.
Troy Taylor, chief death investigator for Denton County, said a passing boater discovered the body about noon Tuesday. The name was withheld pending positive identification.
Taylor said an autopsy showed the man drowned.
The accident happened about 10:35 a.m. Sunday. Taylor said that a hand crank fell off the sailboat and Mills jumped into the water to retrieve it.
“He only recently bought the boat and was not too familiar with it,” Taylor said. “His mom and dad and three other relatives were on the boat with him. They were not at all familiar with the boat, and by the time they got it turned around and were heading back, they saw him come up and then go down. They did not see him again.”
A Lewisville dive team and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department officers searched the area where the boater went down, near Sneaky Pete’s restaurant, but did not find the man.
Taylor said the man still had possession of the hand crank when he was found.
DONNA FIELDER can be reached at 940-566-6885. Her e-mail address is dfielder@dentonrc.com .
