HARDIN COUNTY, Tenn. — The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency has suspended search and recovery operations for Saturday. The search will resume Sunday morning.
Thirty boats and 70 volunteers searched 70 miles of the Tennessee River on Saturday. Units assigned to the river conducted surface and sonar scans in attempts to locate the missing boaters. Jackson Police Department Aviation conducted air searches along the river banks.
Tyson Chicken of Union City was gracious to provide chicken and their cooking team to cook lunch for today’s search and rescue teams. Over the last five days, TWRA, Hardin County Fire Department, Sumner County EMA, Decatur County Rescue, Hardin County Sheriff’s Department, Henry County Rescue, Henderson County Rescue, and EMA, Lake County Sheriff, Humphreys County Sheriff, Carroll County Rescue, Chester County Rescue, Samburg Fire Department, Finger Fire Department, Obion County Rescue, Fayette County Sheriff’s, TEMA, TVA Police, and Pickwick State Park staff, Jackson Police Department Aviation Unit, and the Tennessee Highway Patrol Helicopter have assisted with searching for the missing boaters on the Tennessee River near Pickwick Dam.
While TWRA is not asking for additional volunteers, they understand that there may be friends and family joining the search this weekend. They ask that all new searchers check-in at 8 a.m. at Wayne Jerrold’s river park, 300 South Riverside Drive in Savannah, TN 38372.
The preliminary investigation indicates that a Stratos boat containing 43-year old Kenneth Driver and two 15-year-old boys on a Obion County Central High fishing team was last seen in a picture taken above the dam on Saturday, Feb. 22, between 8 and 8:30 a.m. The three occupants and the 20-foot bass boat went through the floodgates at Pickwick Dam. Search efforts are concentrated on a 14 mile stretch the Tennessee River for the missing boaters. The three people were reported missing after the fishermen failed to return from an Obion County club bass tournament.