Hartsville Man Loses His Life on Center Hill Lake

A 29 year old Hartsville man lost his life on Center Hill Lake Saturday.
The body of Michael Stephen Davidson was recovered near Sligo bridge around 8:30 p.m.
During a recreation outing, the man jumped off a cliff into the lake at the old rock quarry near the bridge. When he didn’t resurface, 911 was notified.
Sheriff Patrick Ray said the call came in at 6:20 p.m.
Members of the Smithville-DeKalb County Rescue Squad, TWRA, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, DeKalb County EMS, and DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department responded.
According to Dustin Johnson, Captain of the Rescue Squad, the body was located in about 28 feet of water. “We (rescue squad) had two boats out there dragging and using side scan sonar but the TWRA located the body using an underwater robot which they happened to have here this weekend. The body was then brought to the surface and we recovered it and brought it back by boat to the ramp at Sligo Marina,” Captain Johnson told WJLE. The body was then taken by DeKalb EMS to the hospital.
“We had a lot of help. Eighteen members of the Rescue Squad responded along with the Corps which had a boat out there and the TWRA, who had three boats and were also using side scan sonar along with their underwater robot. Thanks to everybody involved we made a recovery pretty quickly. We also want to thank the owners of Sligo Marina who provided us drinking water and a pontoon boat for us to use at the scene,” said Captain Johnson.