HIAWASSEE – A family vacation ended in tragedy last week when a 5-year-old boy drowned at a rental property on Lake Chatuge.
At approximately 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 15, the Towns County Sheriff’s Office received a call about a missing boy at a residence on Stonecrest Circle, off Sunnyside Road.
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When deputies arrived, they found that the child had just been pulled from the lake by a family member.
Deputies immediately began CPR along with fire personnel who had also arrived on the scene.
The child was then taken to Chatuge Regional Hospital where he died later that afternoon.
Investigation revealed the child had been missing for about 10 minutes and apparently had wandered into the lake where he was found by a family member.
Towns County Coroner Tamela Cooper confirmed the child was on vacation with his family from Cumming, including his mom, dad, grandparents and older siblings, who were all enjoying time together “when tragedy forever changed this entire family.”
“As a mother and now grandmother, I cannot imagine what they are feeling,” Cooper said. “EMS, Chatuge Regional Hospital and the Towns County Sheriff’s Office gave it their all. They threw everything they had into saving him, but in the end, he had just been in the water too long.”
