Recent autopsy results show that Brookville High School Principal Jim Whorley and retired Lynchburg engineer Terry Reid drowned after their boat capsized in Buggs Island Lake last month.
The two men were headed out to duck hunt when their boat capsized on Dec. 27, said Julia Dixon, spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
Dixon confirmed in an e-mail on Monday that drowning was the cause of death, ruling out other causes such as hypothermia. The autopsy was performed by the Richmond Medical Examiner’s office.
Whorley, 60, and Reid, 61, had launched from Staunton River State Park in Reid’s 16-foot Crestliner johnboat to go duck hunting when the boat collided with a submerged tree near where the Dan and Staunton River merge, Dixon said. The two men had been hunting the day before and headed back out Saturday after two other men in their hunting party had already left.
Those two men were headed back to the park when they came across Reid’s capsized boat and called 911 around 10 a.m., she said. A property owner in the area also called in the wreckage.
Both men were wearing waders, but did not have on life jackets.
The 1976 model johnboat had a deep gash that spanned almost the full length of the boat, Dixon said. Near where the boat was found, investigators also found a large, submerged tree that had paint from Reid’s boat on it.
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