Indiana Conservation Officers are investigating a death that occurred Sunday on the Tippecanoe River in White County.
Yesterday afternoon at approximately 3:50 p.m., White County Communications received a 911 report of a man who was pulled from the Tippecanoe River near Diamond Point. Several agencies responded to the area.
The investigation determined that Jerry F Boling II (age 51) of Lafayette was floating down the river in an inner tube with two friends. At some point he fell into the water from his tube and began to struggle. Friends were able to grab him and get him back to his tube.
A short time later, Boling was in the water struggling again. A boater in the area pulled him into the boat and transported him to emergency responders waiting at a residence along Diamond Point.
Conservation Officers and a bystander performed CPR and applied an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) prior to EMS arriving on scene. The Monticello Fire Department transported Boling to IU White ER where he was pronounced dead.
Indiana Conservation Officers are investigating this incident as a drowning; however, an official cause of death will be determined by the White County Coroner’s Office.
No one in Boling’s group possessed a life jacket. A wearable life jacket is a required piece of safety equipment for everyone on a watercraft. A watercraft includes an inner tube or raft if the device is being used as a form of transportation. The law does not require the life jacket be worn while floating, but does require one to be accessible.