Two men drown when boat flips on pond during fishing trip, Georgia deputies say
The bodies of two fishermen were pulled from frigid waters hours after their boat overturned on a pond in southeast Georgia, sheriff’s deputies said.
Authorities got a 911 call at 12:45 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 15, about a boat that flipped on the water near Poor Robin Road in Sylvania, according to the Screven County Sheriff’s Office.
Responding deputies spoke with a young man who said he was fishing with two other young men when their boat capsized, authorities said in a news release.
He received medical treatment at the scene and was released.
Multiple agencies, including the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Screven County EMS and a team of local scuba divers, responded to help search for the other two men.
“After an extensive five-hour search, in 46-degree water, the bodies of the remaining two young males were located in the pond,” the sheriff’s office said.
The men were identified as Demetrius Boyd, 23, and Elijah Joun Brodnex, 22, Deputy Coroner Daniel Torres told McClatchy News in a phone interview.
“They cast their lines at the same time and it caused the boat to flip,” Torres said. “It was small, little Jon Boat and both of them made a sudden movement to cast their line ... and they just capsized.”
The surviving fisherman made it back to shore and called 911, according to Torres.
Boyd was a junior at Thomas University in Thomasville, Georgia, where played defensive end for the Night Hawks, according to the football team’s roster.
Online tributes poured in for the two men as friends and family honored their memories.
“My husband and I watched these two young men play football all four years they were in high school and such amazing athletes they were,” Lane Rollins Edwards wrote on Facebook.
The sheriff’s office didn’t release additional information but said the incident remains under investigation.
Screven County is about a 60-mile drive northwest from Savannah.
This story was originally published January 16, 2025 at 9:59 AM with the headline "Two men drown when boat flips on pond during fishing trip, Georgia deputies say."