Another summer, another death at one of Georgia’s most popular watering holes: Lake Lanier.
Over the last week of July, a 24-year-old man has died in Lake Lanier, according to authorities.
Thomas Shepard Milner leaped off a dock and into the water and was shocked to death by electricity on Thursday, July 27, 2023, according to a press release from the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office. The sheriff’s office is still investigating events around the presumed electrocution as they await the official cause of death from the coroner.
A family friend tried to pull Milner out of the water, but was unsuccessful, according to the sheriff’s office. Finally, a neighbor was able to pull Milner out of the lake, according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
The neighbor who helped pull the victim out of the water “reported feeling a burning sensation which they immediately recognized as an electric shock,” according to Atlanta News First.
The victim’s mother told the TV station that the dock had been built less than three years ago and was outfitted with electricity.
Milner would later be pronounced dead at Northside Forsyth Hospital.
Another person, 61-year-old Tracey Stewart, also died on Lake Lanier over the weekend after drowning.
Lake Lanier has been linked with some mysterious deaths since its inception in the 1950s. One common misconception was that the lake was built on top of a black town. In fact, Georgia’s Lake Lanier was not built on top of Oscarville, but rather, the construction of Buford Dam, which created the lake, flooded the area where the historic town of Oscarville was located.
