Number of fatalities at Lake of the Ozarks in 2010 doubles over holiday weekend

STOVER, Missouri - The number of fatalities at Lake of the Ozarks in 2010 doubled over the holiday weekend, as four people from the area were killed in separate incidents.

The most recent was Monday, when a man from Lansing, Kansas drowned.

According to the Missouri State Water Patrol, Donald Johnson Jr., 46, was on a boat with three friends near the 65 mile marker in Stover when they stopped around 8:30 p.m. so three of them could urinate.

All three went to the same side of the boat, causing water to come over the gunwale, swamping the boat, the Patrol incident report said.

The other men swam to shore, but could not locate Johnson. His body was found floating nearby about two hours later.

On Sunday, 18-year-old James Peak, of Holden, Missouri also drowned at the lake.

The Patrol reports he went to a dock at Proctor Cove in Ivy Bend around 10:12 p.m. Family members heard a splash, went to the dock and could not find him.

They found his hat floating and called 911. The Water Patrol pulled his body from about 12 feet of water near the dock less than an hour later.

On Saturday, two others from the Kansas City area were killed at the lake.

Corey Foley disappeared after jumping from an anchored boat near mile marker 54 in Laurie. Divers fou nd his body Sunday morning.

Saturday night, Cyrstal Gudde was standing on the back of a boat when its operator tried to reverse his way into a dock. The boat went from idle reverse to full-throttle reverse, slamming into several other docked boats and killing the 26-year-old Lee’s Summit woman.

The four fatalities in the three-day span were as many as had been recorded all year at the lake.

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