2010-07-28 / Local News

Lafayette teen dies in Lake Freeman

Comet staff report

The death of a 13-year-old Lafayette youth at Lake Freeman on Sunday morning remains under investigation.

According to the Carroll County Sheriff’s Department and Department of Natural Resources Law Enforcement, Zachary Crays was found unconscious near a boat dock at the Angel Shore Resorts around 10 a.m. An off-duty Illinois firefighter heard the screaming and ran over to assist in CPR.

Witnesses told police that four children were swimming when for an unknown reason they started to tingle. Three of the youth got out of the water and Crays swam to the dock to get out and fell back into the water. He was found face down by the boatlift.

The Monticello Fire Department and Emergency Medical Services transported Crays to White County Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 10:55 a.m.

Carroll County REMC responded to the scene as well and reportedly located a water soaked electrical junction box that may have electrified the metal on the dock structure possibly causing the teenager to be electrocuted.

Crays’ exact cause of death is pending an autopsy.

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