LAKE TENKILLER, Okla. (KFSM) — Authorities recovered the body of an 18-year-old man Friday who drowned after jumping off a cliff at Lake Tenkiller on Thursday.
According to Lt. Jarrett Johnson of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol Troop C, Cody Hancock, 18, of Muskogee was swimming in Lake Tenkiller on Thursday (June 14) and jumped into the lake from a 15-foot cliff about 7:57 p.m. Witnesses said he surfaced, then started struggling and went underwater.
Other swimmers tried to help Hancock but were unable to bring him to the surface, Johnson said. Investigators searched the surface, but search operations were suspended due to darkness, Johnson said.
The search resumed about 6 a.m. Friday (June 15), and the body was found at 8:24 a.m. about 11 feet underwater on a rock cliff ledge, Johnson said. The Cherokee nation Marshalls dive team found the body, he said.
Hancock had not been wearing a lifejacket, Johnson said.
The search and recovery was assisted by personnel from the Marine Enforcement Division of Troop W, the Keys Fire Department, the Cookson Fire Department and Sixshooter Marina.
