A 19 year old swimmer drowned in Center Hill Lake Wednesday afternoon near Sligo Bridge.
Dead is Ricardo Duenas of Walker Street, McMinnville.
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Sheriff Patrick Ray told WJLE that Duenas and another man went swimming in the lake near an old rock quarry on the east side of Sligo bridge. He said Duenas was trying to swim across to another bank of the lake and made it about half way when he began showing signs of problems and went down. He never resurfaced alive. Others who were swimming in the area tried unsuccessfully to rescue him.
911 received the call for help at 5:36 p.m. The body was recovered more than three hours later.
Members of the TWRA and DeKalb, White, Warren, and Putnam County Rescue Squads participated in the search. The local Emergency Management Agency, officers of the Sheriff’s Department, and DeKalb EMS were also on the scene.
Sheriff Ray said officers of the TWRA conducted a sonar scan and spotted an object of interest in about 40 feet of water. Divers of the Putnam County Rescue Squad went down to investigate and found the victim’s body.