Man dies after swimming incident at Rend Lake

Monday, July 11th, 2011, 11:11am

A St. Louis area man dies after swimming at the South Sandusky beach Saturday evening.

According to the Franklin County Coroner Marty Leffler, 62-year-old Terrell Abernathy of Maplewood, MO died at the Franklin County Hospital just after five Saturday evening.

Coroner Leffler says it is unclear if Abernathy died as the result from a medical condition or if he drowned.

An autopsy is scheduled at 9 a.m. Sunday morning in Carmi.

Leffler says that Abernathy was visiting some friends in southern Illinois and went to the South Sandusky Beach to swim with his two adult daughters.

That's when the outing turned tragic.

Abernathy's daughter told authorities that the lake was very rough and that her dad was headed toward the beach.

When Abernathy started to swim toward the beach he went under the water and his daughter tried to save her father and yelled for help.

View Comments | Post a Comment

Community Sponsors

Bennett Family Dentistry

Our Family Caring for Your Family

Rend Lake

Submitted by Amber Ruch, KFVS12 County News Web Producer

Monday, July 11th, 2011, 10:30am

FRANKLIN COUNTY, IL (KFVS) - Our reporter Julia Bruck sent us these pictures of Rend Lake in Franklin County.

Send us pictures from your community to cNews.

Boats on Rend Lake (Source: Julia Bruck)

View Comments | Post a Comment

Library board meeting

Submitted by Amber Ruch, KFVS12 County News Web Producer

Sunday, July 10th, 2011, 10:00am

WEST FRANKFORT, IL (KFVS) - The West Frankfort Public Library will have a board meeting on Monday, July 11.

The meeting will be at 7 p.m.

View Comments | Post a Comment

Movie day at West Frankfort Public Library

Submitted by Amber Ruch, KFVS12 County News Web Producer

Saturday, July 9th, 2011, 10:00am

Movie day at West Frankfort Public Library

WEST FRANKFORT, IL (KFVS) - The West Frankfort Publin Library will have a movie day on Monday, July 11.

The Friends of the Library will play "Narnia" at 1 p.m.

View Comments | Post a Comment

IDNR: Over 1,200 citations, warnings over holdiay weekend

Submitted by Amber Ruch, KFVS12 County News Web Producer

Friday, July 8th, 2011, 12:54pm

IDNR: Over 1,200 citations, warnings over holdiay weekend

FRANKLIN COUNTY, IL (KFVS) - The Illinois Department of Natural Resources says their Conservation Officers made more than 1,200 citations and warnings over the Fourth of July weekend.

IDNR said officers arrested 25 boaters for operating under the influence and five more people for driving under the influence.

Along with the arrests, CPOs issued 519 citations and 776 warnings statewide while on patrol from July 1 through 4.

Citations were issued for a range of offenses including possession of drugs and drug paraphernalia, underage drinking and disorderly conduct to illegal fishing and other boat safety and boating law violations.

“The hot sunny days led to thousands of boaters out on the state’s waterways this weekend”, said IDNR Conservation Police Chief Rafael Gutierrez. “While there were a few who made poor decisions and were arrested for OUI or DUI, the majority of those we came across were enjoying the holiday responsibly and safely, wh

View Comments | Post a Comment

Officers called to stand in Franklin Co. murder trial

Submitted by KFVS Web Staff

Thursday, July 7th, 2011, 7:23pm

The trial of a 21-year-old woman accused of murder in connection with the deaths of two women is underway in Franklin County.

Afton Ferris is charged, along with 30-year-old Michael Schallert, in the October 2009 killing of Kandis Majors and Terri Seibeck.

Police said Majors and Seibeck were found shot to death in their West Frankfort home.

Thursday, several law enforcement officers from Larimer County, Colorado took the stand.

The jury was presented dozens of pieces of evidence.

One of the Larimer County sheriff's deputies testified a size 2 female blood stained jeans was found in a trash can in Fort Collins, Colorado along with a blood stained hooded sweatshirt that had "true love" written on it. In a taped recording played earlier in the week, Ferris mentioned her true love jacket had blood all over it.

View Comments | Post a Comment

4 injured in jet-ski wreck on Rend Lake

Submitted by KFVS Web Staff

Thursday, July 7th, 2011, 12:59pm

Three people are in the hospital following a jet-ski crash on Rend Lake.

According to lead ranger Mark Roderick with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at Rend Lake, one adult and three teens were riding jet skis Wednesday evening in the area of the lake near Wayne Fitzgerald State Park.

Roderick says at 5:35 p.m. someone called 911 to report the two jet skis had collided and the injured had been thrown off into the water.

A nearby boater pulled the jet skiers from the water until help arrived.

Two of the jet skiers were airlifted to hospitals for treatment. One was flown to a St. Louis hospital, the other to Evansville. A third person was taken by ambulance to Good Samaritan Hospital in Mt. Vernon.

Rangers say the fourth jet skier was treated at the scene for minor injuries and declined further medical treatment.

View Comments | Post a Comment