Dalkeith Woman Dies in Boating Accident

A Dalkeith woman died late last Friday while driving a boat on the Apalachicola River.

The body of Monica McLemore, 47, was found by her husband, Grant McLemore, after a 90-minute search in the swirling chilly waters of the river.

According to Stan Kirkland with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), Monica McLemore launched from Bryant’s Landing in a 12-foot aluminum boat powered by a 25 hp motor heading down the Chipola River destined for a houseboat on the Apalachicola River.

Kirkland noted that upon reaching the intersection of the Chipola and Apalachicola, McLemore would have had to make a hard left turn against significant current en route to the houseboat.

“There is an extremely strong current where the rivers meet,” Kirkland said. “She would have hit that current while trying to make a 90 degree turn (up the Apalachicola).”

According to Kirkland, Monica McLemore’s sister saw her on the river around 5:30 p.m. CT.

Monica McLemore, however, never made it to the houseboat and her husband took a run up to the houseboat to check and could not locate her, Kirkland said.

At 7:30 p.m. CT Grant McLemore contacted Gulf County Search and Rescue which sent out a call for volunteers. The Gulf County Sheriff’s Office was also notified.

Don Minchew, president of Gulf County Search and Rescue, said his team had boats in the water within minutes of the call from Grant McLemore and had also requested a helicopter from Bay County and assistance from Dothan Search and Rescue.

Minchew said there were at least eight boats on the river within a short time after the distress call from Grant McLemore.

“We did everything we could to find her,” Minchew said.

More than an hour after the search and rescue operation began Grant McLemore found his wife’s body lodged against a treetop in the water.

Her boat was found by rescuers about 700 yards downstream of where her body was found.

Monica McLemore was wearing a life vest and the kill switch for her boat was wrapped around her wrist, indicating that as soon as she left the boat the engine was killed.

A kill switch is a cord that hooks to the kill switch on a boat engine. Once pulled from the engine, the engine automatically shuts off.

While required of most boats, it is especially used, Kirkland said, in the case of somebody driving using the tiller at the back of the boat for steering.

Kirkland said he hoped an autopsy, to be performed this week by the Medical Examiner’s Office in Panama City, might clear up how Monica McLemore ended up in the water and how she died.

Kirkland said her husband, who he described as very distraught, indicated Monica McLemore was in some poor health.

He said there was talk that she might have hit a stump or that the rough current at the intersection of the rivers might have thrown her into the chilly water, the temperature of which was in the low 50s.

“We just don’t know at this point,” Kirkland said. “There are no witnesses as to why she went out of the boat.”

Kirkland noted that this was the fourth boating fatality in the region since late December, three of which occurred in the Apalachicola/Chipola River system.

“People need to be careful and wear their life jacket and go slow,” Kirkland said.