During a fishing trip at Georgia’s Lake Lanier, a 73-year-old man drowned after falling out of his boat.
Over the years, Lake Lanier has seen many deaths, and some believe that it is haunted. Was the man’s death just an unfortunate accident? Or could there have been something more sinister at play?
In a statement shared by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR), the most recent victim was identified as Matthew Mayo from Gainesville.
He had been fishing with his wife off a bass boat before plunging overboard. When he attempted to sit back down in his seat, it became unbolted, causing him to fall into the water. He did not reemerge to the surface.
Officials used boat-mounted SONAR to find his body. He was located under six feet of water. Then, a remote-operated vehicle was used to retrieve the body.
Lake Lanier was built during the 1950s and is open to the public. People can engage in activities like fishing, swimming, boating, camping, and hiking.
More than 11.8 million visitors come to the lake every year. Due to the high number of deaths that have taken place at the lake, it is said to be haunted.
Legend has it that in 1958, two young girls named Delia May Parker Young and Susie Roberts skidded off a bridge while driving over Lake Lanier and vanished.
Locals have claimed to see Parker Young haunting the lake. She became known as the Lady of the Lake, and it is rumored that she drags people to the bottom of the lake.
Between 1994 and 2020, there have been 203 fatalities at the lake, according to the DNR. Previously, an 11-year-old boy named Kile Glover, the son of Usher’s ex-wife, Tameka Foster, died at Lake Lanier after he was hit by a jet ski in 2012.
That same year, three other deaths occurred in about a week. This past fall, the body of a man who fell off his jet ski was recovered from the lake.
In 2023, Foster started a petition to clean up the lake and “improve safety measures,” as so many innocent lives have been lost there, including her son. Lake Lanier is reputed to be one of the most dangerous lakes because of submerged debris and boating traffic.
So far, there have been two drownings at Lake Lanier in 2024.
