Robert Courter was with his fiancee and her child at the south end of the swim beach. The child went under, so Robert went in after him, and didn't come back up.

"It could have been 8 or 9 minutes. The witnesses thought he was underwater and they found him and brought him to shore and started CPR," explained Jefferson County Sheriff Jeff Herrig.

But it was too late.

The sheriff told us about his unique perspective on this tragedy.

He actually knew the victim, Rorbert Courter.

"It's hard anyway, even if you don't know them, but it's especially hard if you do know them and you've known them for most of their lives," he said.

The sheriff's daughter went to school with Courter.

"He was a nice guy, you know our hearts go out for the family and friends. My daughter was a good friend of his," Herrig said.

Robert drowned in 6 feet of water. That may not sound like much but in some parts of the lake you can't even see 6 inches below the water, and in murky water, it's easy to get disoriented.

"Situations can occur at anytime--we would just like to remind everyone to be careful, drownings could occur in just a few feet of water," Kenneth Wade, with the US army corps of engineers told us.

Wade, and Park Manager, Bunnie Watkins, say they know the holiday weekend will be a busy one and they hope their guests will learn a lesson from this tragedy: wear a life jacket, and be especially careful around the water.

The Army Corps of Engineers is still investigating the drowning.

They haven't said whether the child was wearing a life jacket.