Found Deceased FL - Putnam Co. Deputy Brandee Smith, 35, St Johns River, 1 April 2016

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How awful! I wonder if she was on duty or not. Odd time to be out on the water unless she was working. I hope they find her quickly.
 
Blondie in Spokane said:
How awful! I wonder if she was on duty or not. Odd time to be out on the water unless she was working. I hope they find her quickly.
Click to expand...

Doesn't appear she was on duty...the sheriff's office seems confused as to why they were on the water @ such an odd hour too.

According to the Sheriff's Office, the deputy and her boyfriend were in a 14-foot skiff-style boat that struck a reflective channel marker in the river near Welaka about 4:40 a.m. and the deputy went overboard.

"I have no idea what they are they were doing out there," Putnam County Sheriff Jeff Hardy said. "(We have) a lot of hopes that we're going to find her."
Click to expand...

http://www.news4jax.com/news/search-for-missing-boater-out-of-putnam-county
 
Wonder if she likes to fish. Do they fish there in the river? I've definitely been out fishing at that time of the morning...often.
 
This is horrible.

I hope she is ok somewhere
 
[video=twitter;715970216287674368]https://twitter.com/jaxdotcom/status/715970216287674368[/video]
 
[video=twitter;715987399994638336]https://twitter.com/wjxt4/status/715987399994638336[/video]
 
She was at the tiller when the incident happened and off duty. The area is known to be a great fishing spot. There were photos of Brandee shown on the news driving a boat which looks identical to the one in the news pic.

"The small boat was towed away about 2:15 p.m., although there were not any noticeable signs of damage on the bow."
Odd, maybe it was hit at a very slow speed or a side hit?
Praying it is a rescue...
http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/...sing-sheriffs-deputy-continues-st-johns-river
 
"Her boyfriend dove in after her but was unable to find her, according to the Sheriff's Office. He is OK."
I wonder if she was able to surface and yell for help. Nothing I've read indicates whether Brandee surfaced or not.
The St Johns River is like swimming in root beer. DH and I used to sail on the St Johns when we were younger and there is no visibility when underwater. From all the tannic acid. It creeped me out.
http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/...sing-sheriffs-deputy-continues-st-johns-river
 
--i wonder why they were out there fishing so early, in the dark ?

http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/...-missing-following-boat-outing-st-johns-river

--snip--
“This is the type of call you don’t want to get in the middle of the night,” Sheriff Jeff Hardy told Times-Union news partner First Coast News Friday morning.


Hardy calls Smith an outstanding deputy and mother, while Wells said she is an avid outdoors person. The sheriff also said that investigators are unaware why the deputy and her boyfriend, who is OK, were on the river so early in the morning. But Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesman Greg Workman said the area is known as a fisherman’s dream and people often go out by sun up.
Still, at the time of the mishap, sun up was more than two hours away.


“It’s dark out there,” said Randy Smith, (no relation) who works a nearby fish, crab and bait store. “And that moon couldn’t have been too bright out there.”
 
No life-jacket? 4:45 AM? I wonder if alcohol was involved. Or foul play.
 
lauriej said:
--i wonder why they were out there fishing so early, in the dark ?
Click to expand...

As I like to fish on occasion, fish prefer early morning and evening sun over the bright midday sun. You get more bites that way.
 
(http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/...missing-following-boat-outing-st-johns-river#)

Snippits:

Officials said the channel marker that was struck near the boat ramp into the river does have reflectors on it, but not a beacon. They don't know how fast the two were going and haven't commented on whether Smith had on a life preserver.

Hardy said he and others hope the deputy was able to swim to shore somewhere and is just waiting to be found.

The water depth in the area is about 30 feet and about 18 where she went missing.

The current is strong about 2 to 4 mph going north, but much slower this far south, and rescuers believe she could have been swept downriver.
 
We also don't know whether they had marine lights or a spotlight on the boat. Still so many questions and was so sorry to not read about a rescue this morning. I know she worked the night shift and was used to being up all night. She probably planned to be home sometime in the morning to sleep during the day because she had to report to work at midnight on Friday.
 
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