Nine members of an African-American family from Indiana listed among the 17 people who perished after a duck boat capsized during a storm last week on a river near Branson, Missouri.
The boat, which could travel on land and water, went down in about 40 feet of water in rough weather at Table Rock Lake.
The sheriff’s office listed nine victims with the Coleman family that included four children, the youngest who was just a year old.
They were Angela, 45; Arya, 1; Belinda, 69; Ervin, 76; Evan, 7; Glenn, 40; Horace, 70; Maxwell, 2; and Reece, 9.
Two other members, Tia Coleman,34, and her 13-year-old nephew Donovan, survived the tragedy that took the lives of her husband and three children.
Coleman told CNN affiliate KOLR that when she was in the water, she couldn’t see or hear anyone. She said she yelled, screamed and then let go.
“And I started floating … to the top. I felt the water temperature rise to warm … and I saw the big boat that sits up there,” she told KOLR from a hospital bed, referring to a riverboat docked nearby. “And when I saw they were throwing out life jackets to people and I said, ‘Jesus keep me, just keep me so I can get to my children. Keep me, Lord.’ ”
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the accident, which had 14 survivors, including the boat’s captain.
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said Friday in a CNN interview that, “I had a chance to talk to her (Tia Coleman), and it’s difficult to find the right words to say other than (our) thoughts and prayers are with her.”
Nine Members of Same Family Perish in Missouri Boat Outing
