CONROE, Texas – Investigators have recovered the body of a 25-year-old man who drowned Saturday.
According to authorities the man leapt out of a boat on Lake Conroe, into the water, and never resurfaced.
It happened around 3:30 in the afternoon. The man was onboard a pontoon boat with nearly a dozen family members. Two of the family members were being towed from behind while tubing.
"They were his cousins. The younger children had life jackets on and everything. They fell off, of course the kids screamed, he apparently took that as they were in distress," said a Montgomery County Constable Office official.
Responding accordingly, the 25-year old took matters into his own hands jumping into action without a life vest, according to investigators.
"He jumped overboard. The boat was already slowing and turning around to pick the kids up. When they looked he never came back up," said the official.
Dive crews and nine rescue boats were then sent to scour the area for the missing boater.
After a four and a half hour search investigators say his body was recovered 200 yards offshore.
"Life jackets, that's why we wear them, even though we're swimmers, we expect to be in the water. Kind of like a seatbelt. You never expect to be in a wreck, but when it happens, it's good to have your seatbelt on. It is the same thing in the water," said a Montgomery County Constable Office official.
The drowning is being treated as an accident.
Investigators say the victim was the only boater on board not wearing a life jacket.