Authorities have recovered from Lake Lanier the bodies of two Kentucky men who were part of a fatal boating accident that killed four people Friday afternoon . The bodies of the two other victims were recovered early Saturday morning.
Georgia Department of Natural Resources Major Stephen Adams said the victims recovered from the lake early Sunday morning were Arthur Gene McMahan, Jr., 46, of Mount Washington, Kentucky and Anthony Reece, Jr., 44, of Columbia, Kentucky.
"About 8:00 Saturday night we started getting our sonar equipment ready as the traffic on the lake died down," he explained. "About midnight...we were able to locate one of the remaining victims, and then shortly thereafter, a little after 1:00 a.m., located and recovered the final victim that was involved in the boating incident."
Adams said the victims, whose bodies were located in roughly 90 feet of water just west of the Cocktail Cove area in southern Hall County, were recovered through the use of a remotely-operated vessel.
Both men were killed after their high-performance vessel crashed shortly before 4:00 p.m. Friday.
The first break in Friday's initial search came several hours later after midnight, when sonar picked up possible targets.
Adams said the ROV confirmed the targets were the crash's two female victims.
"With the assistance of the Hall County Sheriff's Office and Hall County Fire Services, we did recover two females from the lake overnight [Saturday]," Adams said.
Those victims were indentified as Melissa Renee McMahan, 45, of Mount Washington, Kentucky and Tammy Reece, 44, of Columbia, Kentucky. Adams confirmed Sunday that both the McMahans and the Reeces were spouses.
The agencies were involved in the initial response and search held a press conference before any of the victims were recovered Friday night.
Authorities were then in the process of talking to victims' family members about the recovery and search efforts. According to authorities, the victims were visiting the area for the the 8th Annual Pirates of Lanier Charity Poker Run.
"We have interviewed numerous witnesses, and it appears that the boat was traveling on plane, going south on the lake, and it encountered a wake and at some point turned over," Adams said Friday night.
He described the vessel, which has since been recovered from the lake, as a 38-foot offshore racing-style boat.
Authorities were then in the process of talking to victims' family members about the recovery and search efforts. According to authorities, the victims were visiting the area for the the 8th Annual Pirates of Lanier Charity Poker Run.
"We have interviewed numerous witnesses, and it appears that the boat was traveling on plane, going south on the lake, and it encountered a wake and at some point turned over," Adams said Friday night.
He described the vessel, which has since been recovered from the lake, as a 38-foot offshore racing-style boat.
Adams noted that while the search effort has been concluded, the accident itself is still under investigation.
"Our Critical Incident Reconstruction Team is still processing the vessel. They'll be collecting evidence from the boat, such as computer evidence stored in the engine, GPS data, looking at damage to the vessel, but we do believe that speed was involved in this crash."
He added that it will likely take an additional four-to-six weeks before the official incident report is finalized and released.
A social media entry from organizers of the poker run said its format will change in the wake of the accident.
"We will depart from Buford Dam for a Memorial Run for the members of our Poker Run family that we lost today (Friday)."
AccessWDUN's Alyson Shields, Derreck Booth and Brian Stewart contributed to this story.
