Two brothers died of likely carbon monoxide poisoning from a generator and a third man was hospitalized after an overnight boating trip on Georgia’s Lake Lanier turned tragic.
Scott Landeck, 22, and his brother Brian Landeck, 31, were found unconscious by family members Saturday morning after they spent the night on their boat. Relatives were able to wake the third man on board, but he was disoriented and taken to the hospital.
The bodies were discovered by friends and family members about 11 a.m. in Bald Ridge Creek near Mary Alice Park, Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Stacie Miller told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The generator was not in an enclosed area of the boat, but it was positioned so that its exhaust did not exit the boat, Miller told the newspaper, so the toxic fumes filled the cabin.
“It is believed that they were running a generator all night with the canopy of the boat closed,” Miller told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“Though it was in an area that was not enclosed, the positioning of the generator did not allow the exhaust to exit the boat,” the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office told WXIA-TV. “Instead, it filled the cabin where the men were sleeping.”
Family members found them Saturday morning and towed the boat back to the mainland, then called police. Deputies responded to a call about two men being deceased on a boat at Lake Lanier’s Mary Alice Park at 11:23 a.m. Saturday, WGCL-TV reported.
Family told investigators that three family members had gone out Friday evening to spend the night on the boat at an island on Lake Lanier. They were the latest fatalities on the 38,542-acre lake, which has seen several drownings this season.
“Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office, along with Cumming Police Department, Forsyth County Fire Department and EMS, responded to Mary Alice Park in reference to a boat with two deceased males on board,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement Saturday. “FCSO is currently investigating, and at this time foul play is not suspected.”
