Dorian Pinson went missing April 18 after a boating accident near Sunrise Cove Marina in Lake Lanier Georgia, when three people either jumped or fell from a rented pontoon boat.
They were unable to make it back to the boat due to wind.
Two of the subjects were rescued by a passing boat but Pinson went under and did not resurface.
The DNR search continued daily for five days using side-scan and sector scan sonar, and DNR planes that also flew the area several times.
The water was 130 feet deep with standing timber covering the bottom. During the five-day search, the game wardens covered over 300 acres of lake using a grid search pattern. On the sixth day after the incident, they transitioned to surface searches and shore sweeps, which have been continuing daily.”
I was originally contacted Dorian’s mother. I was later introduced to a group of volunteers that had been working this case. Kristian had lined much of the logistics upon our arrival. Richard had lined up for the witnesses to meet with me when I arrived. On July 12 Gary G and I set up for the 16-hour road trip. We arrive at Lake Lanier mid-day on July 13 and got out on the lake to meet with the witnesses. After reviewing the video that they had and pulling the phone data I had set up the search area. We then went back to shore and set up our equipment. Lake Lanier is a manmade reservoir. They have 70’ trees standing upright and is 115” deep in this area.
I first deployed my Klein 4900 tow fish sonar to see firsthand what this area looked like. Imagine flying over a heavy forest and trying to locate someone laying on the bottom. Then I set up over the location based on the cell phone location and deployed our Outland Technologies ROV (remote operated vehicle). Working the ROV down threw all the tree limbs as I reached near the bottom, I could not believe my eyes. With all the trees in the way I could already see a body image laying on the lake floor just 20’ on my Tritech sonar that is mounted on my ROV. As I worked the ROV through the trees to him I was able to see that it was in fact what we were looking for. The visibility was only see about 12 inches with my camera.
Because I was told that I was not to touch anything I backed off. This was an active case and was being investigated. Now I got hung up in the trees. We had lined up divers to be with us in case this happened. The local volunteer divers soon suited up and were successful in getting my ROV free for the trees that was in 113”. Thank you fellows!
The local authorities were called. It was dark when we got back to the landing, and we soon had all kinds of company. After some discussion they asked if I could go back out and recover Dorian. It was now 11pm. We went out and gave it two attempts and the trees gave me a lot of trouble this time. If we were to get my ROV stuck, we would have to unroll 800’ of cable on top of all those trees and hope it would come out the next morning, because agreed not to put any divers in at night. I had to make the call to come back in the morning when we could do this safer. I was not going back to WI without my ROV. I was warned that the FBI has a sonar stuck out in the trees in this lake already from years earlier and really did want to become that statistic.
We met with the GA DNR and Hall County Sheriff’s Dive Team on July 14th. The DNR wanted to put in their sonar that is set up on a tripod to locate Dorian in which they did so. They then place a metal dog cage down to better locate our target. I then grabbed the cable at the surface with my ROV and followed it down through the trees. I was nocking off branches but finally made it to the bottom. I could see our target but was surrounded with trees. Maneuvering around them I was able to grab an arm and get him secured to the ROV. Now we would normally pull on our cable from the surface to get him to the surface. But we found the cable to be stuck once again. The dive team discussed their option to go down and they decided to not put their divers at risk. We decided to let go and try another route. With the help of the DNR’s tripod sonar, they help guide me around some trees at another angle. I grabbed his other arm. As we started pulling, we got him up to 90’ and got hung up again. Once again, the divers decided not to make the dive. I am now kicking myself in the ass for not bring my own gear. I was guaranteed that there would be divers to help me in this case. I now had Gary throw in 20’ of cable and we waited about 10 minutes. Gary then was able to get Dorian to the surface. Dorian was down for 86 days.
Our sincere condolences go out to Dorian’s family.