GPD Chief Robert Weber Responds to Drowning Accident At Whitetail Dam

SCOBEY - Willard Kanning, 79, of Plentywood was enjoying an afternoon of fishing at White-tail Dam, Friday, Oct. 29, while his friend, Beverly Marsh, 71, enjoyed the view of the lake and reading a book inside the pickup.

Things quickly turned tragic as they were preparing to leave. A 911 call was received by Daniels County Dispatch at 5:39 p.m. Friday evening after Raymond Garberg picked up a woman along the road near the entrance to the Whitetail fishing spot.

Beverly Marsh, also of Plentywood was wet, cold and traumatized but managed to tell them that a pickup she and Willard were in, had just sunk in the reser-voir.

She managed to get out, swim to shore and hike up to the highway just south of the town of Whitetail. Willard's health caused him to have very poor mobility and he just could not get out before it went under.

Todd Southland of Whitetail was the first EMS re-sponder to answer the call and was on the scene nine minutes after the call came in. The pickup was not visible.

Marsh was kept inside a warm vehicle until the ambu-lance from Scobey arrived a short time later. She said the vehicle had floated for a while before going under but could not explain exactly where it went down.

Also arriving quickly was Sheriff Duane Anderson and deputies, the Daniels County fire and rescue truck and many other volunteers.

By then it was getting dark and flashlights were needed.

Sheriff Anderson waded out to waist deep with a flash-light but could see nothing. At that time the decision was made that the search and rescue became a recovery mission.

Fireman Quaid Dahl and his wife Shasta, who live in Whitetail, brought their small fishing boat over to assist in the search.

Due to lack of visibility and dropping temperatures, the search was suspended at approximately 9 p.m. and resumed early Saturday morning with more equipment and more daylight.

Rob Maher brought his boat with sonar equipment to assist with the search.

At approximately 10:45 a.m., the pickup was found about 50 to 60 yards off shore and considerably south from where they believed the pick-up had gone into the water.

It was discovered, resting wheels down, in 11 feet of water.

The water temperature was at 40° with the outside air temperature at 39°.

Scuba, rescue divers arrived from Medicine Lake and Glasgow to help with the recovery.

Robert Weber of Valley County Search and Rescue was backed up by divers Jim Bobo and Becca Rigal of Medicine Lake.

Weber dove, confirming Kanning was still in the vehicle, and hooked a cable to the small, Honda pickup's frame and gave guidance as the vehicle was being extracted from the reservoir with Maher's wrecker winch.

The vehicle was not visible until about 20 feet from shore.

It is believed that the pickup was parked near the water on the gravel/dirt boat ramp (bottom left photo).

When it was time to leave, Kanning may have suspected that he may have to give it a little extra gas to back up the slope, but accidentally put shifter in forward instead of reverse causing the pickup to lurch forward into the water.

The vehicle quickly became buoyant, drifting away from shore. The breeze that evening may have been the cause of the vehicle ending up such a considerable distance from shore and south of where search teams first suspected its location.

Sheriff Anderson said he was very impressed and grateful for all the people who responded to the call and that everyone did a fine job, especially since the local vol-unteers have not had reason to have much experience with this kind of rescue/ recovery scenario.

Food and hot coffee for the responders was brought out to the scene from the Ponderosa and D.C. Lanes.

Willard Kanning's funeral service was at 2 p.m. Monday, November 8 at the Sheridan County Civic Center in Plentywood.