Georgia reservoir claims third life in past week as body of missing swimmer, 27, recovered in Lake Lanier

The body of a 27-year-old swimmer who went missing last weekend on a Georgia lake north of Atlanta was recovered this week, authorities told Fox News Digital.  

Leonardo Martinez disappeared while swimming at Lake Lanier last Saturday, and his body was found nearly 100 feet from shore Thursday near Van Pugh Park, according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and FOX 5. 

A 61-year-old boater also went missing briefly last Saturday after he dove off a boat and never resurfaced. The body of Tracey Stewart was reportedly found last later that night. 

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Another man, Thomas Milner, 24, died July 31, after he jumped off a dock at the lake and was apparently electrocuted, according to FOX 5. 

A man who rescued Milner from the water “described a burning sensation he recognized as an electric shock,” the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office said, according to CBS News. “He swam ashore, turned off the power box and re-entered the water ultimately pulling [Milner] onto the dock.”

Electric shock drowning can occur when electrical current leaks into surrounding waters, causing a swimmer to become incapacitated, according to the Electric Shock Drowning Prevention Association, an organization dedicated to raising awareness and educating people on the risks of electric shock in water.

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The trio of deaths is just the latest among hundreds of lives that have been claimed at the manmade lake created in 1956. 

Between 1994 and 2022, 216 people have died at the late which is also a reservoir, the department said, according to USA Today, and is the state’s largest body of water, covering 39,000 acres.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.