Lake Brownwood Drowning Victim Identified

Update: 12:00pm - The identity of Wednesday's drowning victim at Lake Brownwood has been released.

According to Texas Parks and Wildlife Department District Captain Malcolm Wilkes, 18-year-old Collin Robinson of Kaufman, Texas has been identified as the victim of Wednesday evening's drowning at Lake Brownwood. Wilkes confirmed that Robinson had traveled to Lake Brownwood with 5 high school friends at the time of the accident.

"He was with 5 high school friends who were staying at a house at the lake to celebrate one last get together before they all went different directions for college," said Wilkes. "They came in early Wednesday to swim and had been out swimming for quite a while when they got out too far. They were trying to get back in and were swimming against the wind when Collin got in distress and the other boys could not help him."

According to officials, the boys have been friends all the way through their school years and the five remaining are very distressed about the accident and loss of their friend. Robinson's parents arrived from Kaufman around midnight and have been present during the search according to Wilkes. Wilkes stated that Lake Patrol had one boat and there were two TPWD game warden boats involved in the recovery effort. Brown County Sheriff's Office gave additional support from the shore.


Update 9:45am - Search teams discovered the body of a man Thursday morning who drowned in Lake Brownwood the previous evening while swimming with friends at Flat Rock Park.

Teams began working around 6:00am to recover the body from the lake Thursday morning. At 9:40am recovery was made according to Brown County Sheriff's officials. BCSO officials on scene said that no alcohol was involved in the incident and that the young man who drown was the youth choir director at his hometown church in Kaufman, Texas. Authorities are not releasing any further information at this time.


Original article: Law enforcement officials began a search for a possible drowning victim in Lake Brownwood Wednesday evening at Flat Rock Park. The 18-year-old man was reported to have been swimming with friends in the Flat Rock Park area of Lake Brownwood when he went missing. Initial scanner traffic indicates that a Brown County Sheriff's deputy responded to the report of someone drowning in the area after 6pm Wednesday.

A Lake Patrol boat was soon searching the area where the teen went missing based on eye witness reports. The search was suspended after dark and began again around 6am Thursday morning with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department game wardens taking the lead. Law enforcement officials can't confirm any other information until the man is found. "We suspect drowning, but won't draw that conclusion until after we locate the body," said Tony Aaron of the Brown County Sheriff's Office. "We are assisting the game wardens who are conducting the search. If it is a drowning, they will conduct the investigation. If it turns into anything else, which we don't expect, we will take the lead."

Initial reports indicate that the missing man was visiting Lake Brownwood from out of town.