Body of Central KY football player found. Volunteer firefighters took days off to help
After almost a week of work, search crews recovered the body of a missing Madison Central football player from Herrington Lake on Tuesday night.
The body of Emanuel Prewitt, a 17-year-old senior, was located at about 9:40 p.m., said Mike Wilder, Boyle County emergency management director. Prewitt was swimming with high school friends when he went missing last week.
Wilder said his body was found in the area adjacent to where he was swimming by a search party the size of about 25-30 people. The body was transported to the state medical examiner’s office in Frankfort for an autopsy.
Wilder, who is also the county’s deputy coroner, said there was no reason to suspect foul play. The autopsy would look for any unknown underlying health conditions, Wilder said.
Search teams were pleased to be able to recover the body for the family and hopefully bring them some closure, Wilder said. Local volunteer firefighters took days off from their other jobs — sometimes without pay — to continue the search effort, which lasted for about six days. He also wanted to thank search crews that came from other counties and from Ohio and Tennessee.
“They’re not charging anybody a dime,” Wilder said.
Wilder said earlier this week that the lake complicated the search because it has a lot of ledges and currents that move objects. The “treacherous” bottom makes searches difficult, and the area they were searching is about 120 feet deep, he said.
The Salvation Army provided food to first responders and Danville Christian Academy, which is located near the area of the lake where Prewitt went missing, provided a space and food for the family during the search.
A GoFundMe has been started to help support the Prewitt family.
This story was originally published June 17, 2020 at 8:43 AM.