Boat returned to family of man recovered from Laurel Lake

CORBIN, Ky. (FOX 56) — A mission that took a few minutes will hold a lifetime of memories for a family who is grieving after their loved one drowned while fishing in Laurel Lake last week.

Leaders said 26-year-old John Myrick and his friend were fishing near the dam. The boat was swept into the current, causing it to capsize; Myrick unfortunately did not resurface.

The days-long search ended on Friday, May 9.

Graham Barrineau, co-founder of Diving with Hope, said the company wanted to give the family a sense of closure.

“We were called in by the family to retrieve the boat. It was in about 40 feet of water, and we successfully brought it up,” Barrineau said.

Barrineau said the resurfacing process only took about four minutes, but the total operation took hours.

“If you kind of think of a hot air balloon, it’s the same process, but underwater,” Barrineau said. “So, we go down with a deflated bag, hook it up to the boat. We have airlines that come back to the surface; we fill those full of air, and it floats the boat up, and then we can just tug it back to the ramp.”

Not just anyone can do this work; lots of training goes into it.

“It’s not as simple as just swimming down and hooking something up to it and pulling it up. There’s a lot of math and safety requirements to keep our divers safe,” Barrineau said.

He said the company often performs these types of missions for grieving families; it is rewarding to give them something to hold on to, items that seemed to be lost forever.