Search ends with discovery of missing boater's body
JASPER COUNTY — By Steve W Stewart/KJAS - The search for a missing boater ended on Tuesday when his body was discovered in Lake Sam Rayburn.
57-year-old William Harding, of Jasper, had been missing since at least Sunday when his empty pontoon boat was found adrift near the Jasper/Angelina County line on Sunday morning. Late Tuesday morning, a U.S. Park Ranger found his body floating at Coleman Cove, and he was recovered by Jasper County Sheriff Mitchel Newman and Emergency Corps member Tom Hilton in an Emergency Corps boat.
Game wardens found his pickup truck and boat trailer about 6 miles south at Public Boat Ramp on Recreational Road 255. Captain Tom Jenkins said he and other game wardens speculate that Harding launched his boat sometime Saturday, and was then caught in a thunderstorm which crossed the lake late that afternoon and most likely threw him off of the boat.
