A Hazlehurst fisherman who fell into Williams Lake and drownedlast Monday could not swim, but lake conditions likely would haveclaimed his life even if he could, officials said during Tuesday’ssupervisors meeting.

Lincoln County Civil Defense Director Clifford Galey said forensicreports show drowning was the cause of death for 63-year-old M.L.Berry, who fell from his boat and disappeared beneath the water onValentine’s Day afternoon and remained on the bottom for three daysbefore his recovery. Search and rescue workers had speculated Berrymay have had a heart attack or suffered a blow to the head thatrendered him unconscious during the fall, but the autopsy showed noother health problems.

A big-framed man, Berry’s weight, and the sub-50-degree watertemperatures worked against him too quickly, Galey said.

“He was getting ready to go back to the shore, and for some reasonhe fell overboard,” he said. “He apparently drowned andsank.”

Later Tuesday, Lincoln County Coroner Clay McMorris confirmeddrowning as the cause of death.

Illinois professional fisherman Dennis Watters, a volunteer withnon-profit victim-finder Texas EquuSearch Mounted Search andRecovery Team, located and recovered Berry’s body at 4:08 p.m. lastThursday. Berry was found about 50 feet west of search and rescueworkers’ last pass in roughly 15 feet of water.

“We were headed in the right direction. We just didn’t have goodinformation on where to look for him,” said Galey, who pointed outthe victim’s wife showed rescuers where to begin their search. “Ican’t blame her – I’d have been hysterical too. She just couldn’ttell us where to look.”

The high-tech sonar mounted on the Texas EquuSearch boat -basically an advanced fish-finder – located Berry’s body almostimmediately, Galey said. None of the emergency responders andvolunteers searching the lake prior to Watters’ arrival -departments that came from as far away as Jackson and Jones County- had access to such equipment.

“What he had on his boat was just amazing. When he came in andshowed us the card out of his computer, there was no doubt,” hesaid. “Somewhere in this state we need something like that. We haveseveral drownings each year, and that would really help in therecovery process.”

Lincoln County supervisors are planning a resolution of thanks forthe many agencies that assisted in last week’s search. More than 20agencies and 80 emergency workers and volunteers were involved atthe height of the search.