teen dies after fall into icy lake
By Chris Schilling
First Posted: December 22, 2010 – 7:45 pm
Last Updated: December 23, 2010 – 2:29 pm
COLUMBUS, Ind. — A 16-year-old former Columbus boy died and two local teens were being treated Wednesday night after they fell through the ice on Terrace Lake in western Bartholomew County.
Andrew Laker | The Republic – Rescue crews prepare to move the recovered victim from an airboat to a waiting ambulance Wednesday night.
Derek Lodestein, 16, of Davenport, Iowa, died at Columbus Regional Hospital, Bartholomew County Coroner Allen Smith said. Lodestein was pulled from the lake shortly after 9 p.m., about three hours after the boys fell through the ice.
The other two boys were Joshua Corrie, 16, and Dylan Godsey, 15, both of Columbus. They were being treated at CRH, but their injuries were not considered life threatening, police said.
The three boys were walking on the ice around 6:30 p.m. when they fell through about 200 feet from land.
A Terrace Lake resident, who neighbors identified as Bob Snow, heard the boys shouting and deployed his boat to help them.
He pulled one of the boys from the icy water and was helping a second boy when Columbus Police Department officers arrived.
Lodestein was clinging onto the side of Snow’s boat.
Officers commandeered a flat boat and took it out to assist in the rescue effort, but Lodestein went under before they could reach him.
The Bartholomew County Swift Water Rescue Team responded and searched the lake for the boy.
Divers from Indiana State Police and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources also were called to the scene.
The rescue team broke up the ice while awaiting the divers’ arrival and preparation, which took about two hours.
Andrew Laker | The Republic – Divers search for the body of missing teenager Derek Lodestein, 16, who slipped under the water with two other teens Wednesday night, Dec. 22, 2010, at Terrace Lake in Columbus, Ind. The two other teens were immediately rescued and taken to Columbus Regional Hospital, but Lodestein was not recovered for more than two hours.
The divers pulled him from the water after about 10 minutes of getting in the water.
The DNR divers were responding from Brown County and the ISP diver was coming from southern Indiana, said Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Maj. Todd Noblitt.
The local swift water rescue team has trained divers, and an ISP diver was on the scene, but those divers were not certified to dive in icy waters, Noblitt said.
Divers also must dive in a crew and cannot attempt rescue efforts alone.
Corrie’s grandparents, Marshall and Geri Corrie, who live on Terrace Lake Drive, said the three boys had eaten dinner at their house and said they were going down to the lake.
“My wife told them to stay off the ice, it’s not thick enough,” Marshall Corrie said.
He said when he heard sirens, he knew the boys had fallen in the lake.
Geri Corrie said the three boys attended Columbus Signature Academy before Lodestein moved to Iowa.
Joshua Corrie and Godsey are sophomores at CSA, she said.
“They were the three musketeers, that’s what I called them,” she said.
CPD spokesman Lt. Joe Richardson said Lodestein’s stepmother was visiting Indianapolis on business and had left Lodestein in Columbus to visit with his friends.
A number of emergency agencies responded, including CPD, Columbus Fire Department, Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department, CRH medics, Indiana State Police and DNR officers.
“There was outstanding cooperation,” Richardson said.
