Divers located the body of a 6-year-old Wilmar boy who went missing while swimming with his family at Lake Monticello Wednesday afternoon.
Benjamin Hayes‘ body was located following a 2-hour search about 60 feet from the bank on the Arkansas 35 access side of Lake Monticello where he had been playing.
Drew County Sheriff Mark Gober, who knew the family, said when he saw Benjamin recently, Ben told him he wanted to be a police officer when he grew up. Gober said he replied, “‘No, you want to be the sheriff.'”
Hayes is the fourth person to drown at Lake Monticello since 2009.
Seth Hall, 17, of Missouri, died on June 17, 2011 while swimming near the dock area of Lake Monticello; Antuan Deundre Clifton, a 16-year-old Wilmar boy, was taken off life support eight days after he was pulled from Lake Monticello on June 7, 2010; and Robert Brazeale, a 21-year-old Monticello man, drowned at the lake on May 20, 2009 about five feet from the dock on the Arkansas 35 access side of the lake.
Patrick Sullivan, a 15-year-old Star City boy who drown at Lake Monticello in 2005, is believed to be the first person to drown at Lake Monticello, according to a family member. The following year, in May 2006, Warren teen Geronimo Salvador drown in the lake after stepping into a drop off into deep water.
Lord be with them.
Prayers going out to this little man’s family and also to the rescue workers.
That is a lot of drownings for that lake in such a short time!! Bless that poor child and family. Prayers going out to them.
This makes one drowning a year for the last four years. All sad. All unfortunate. But hardly an epidemic. The lesson here is to not let your young children out of your sight when near water — not for a moment. Whether it was preventable or not, prayers certainly go to the family. I can’t imagine how tough such an event must be.