Missing boat found, boater dead
Part-time Lake Gaston resident perishes

By The Daily Herald Staff
Published/Last Modified on Monday, October 26, 2009 8:54 AM EDT

EATONS FERRY — Dozens of volunteers in boats scoured Lake Gaston in the early morning hours of Saturday searching for a missing boater.

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Fifty-seven-year-old John Scruggs was found in his capsized boat dead around 10:30 a.m.

Roanoke Wildwood Volunteer Fire Department Chief Stuart Garnett said the boat was found upside-down near Eatons Ferry. “The gentleman was in the boat dead,” he reported. The Churchill Five Forks Volunteer Fire Department discovered the boat.

Garnett declined to speculate on what may have happened, adding the investigation is continuing.

According to Garnett and other searchers, Scruggs came from Portsmouth, Va., to open his family weekend home on Lake Gaston.

He apparently went out on his 1979 Mastercraft Ski boat, approximately 19-feet in length, around 1:30 p.m., Friday.

Unable to reach him at the Lake Gaston residence early Saturday morning, his family realized Scruggs was missing. They called for help.

“We got the call around 1 a.m. and started searching,” Garnett said. Nearly a dozen other agencies provided manpower and equipment in hopes of finding Scruggs and his missing watercraft.

They searched from the dam to Eatons Ferry in the early morning darkness. About 4 a.m., the search was suspended. It resumed at first light around 7 a.m., Saturday. A few hours later, the capsized craft and its captain were found.

While voicing sadness at not finding Scruggs alive and well, Garnett praised the effort of the volunteers and emergency personnel who joined the search. “That’s one thing you can rely on when you have trouble. People really show up to help.”

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