2 bodies recovered from boat

Rescue workers Sunday recovered the bodies of two more victims from Thursday night’s fatal collision between a barge and a leisure boat, but another victim remains missing.

The two victims found are Ray Peters, 53, and Patti Jo Manley, 50, both of Hamilton, Lauderdale County Coroner Andy High said.

The missing woman has been identified by family members as Mary Hood, 54, also of Hamilton.

The body of another victim, William Hill Jr., 59, of Norris Circle, Sheffield, was pulled from the water Thursday night.

A tugboat with several barges in tow collided with Hill’s 32-foot aluminum cabin cruiser shortly after 8 p.m. Thursday, just east of Wilson Dam. The crash site was at the rear of the Indian Springs subdivision in Florence.

Divers recovered the two bodies in the river inside the wrecked boat Sunday, TVA Capt. Joe Kelley said. Authorities then towed the boat and began inspecting it.

The search will continue today, said Mike Melton, director of the Colbert County Emergency Management Agency. It was suspended late Sunday afternoon.

“We let everybody go in and get some rest,” Melton said. Rescue and recovery crews have worked long days since the crash.

“The recovery mission will continue,” Melton said. “We’re going to use all the resources possible to do it.”

He and Kelley will meet this morning and try to hammer out an action plan, Melton said.

“We’re dealing with weather and all kinds of hazards, such as deep water and the current,” Melton said. “We’re trying to make sure everyone is not completely worn out.”

He said the wreckage was found in about 80 feet of water. The two bodies were in the vicinity of the boat.

“That would be ground zero, as far as starting out our search graph,” Melton said.

Divers had hoped to find Hood’s body in the cabin, but did not. They did find her purse in the wreckage, and have given it to her family.

The families of the victims waited at a staging location at Fleet Harbor on the Tennessee Valley Authority Reservation on Sunday. By that afternoon, Hood’s family was still there.

“She was a very loving, giving person, and was the best mother anybody ever could have asked for,” her daughter, Kerry Holmes-Pounders, said.

Hood’s other daughter, Kim Holmes, said Hood and Hill had been dating for a couple of years and had even talked about living on the boat.

The last time the sisters saw their mother and Hill, who went by the nickname Butch, was Thursday.

“She and Butch came to my house,” Holmes-Pounders said. “We had a good time talking to them. Butch was digging up a flower that we had tried to dig up for my sister.”

The family was concerned when they heard the news of a collision. The sisters said they figured out by Friday afternoon that their mother was in the crash.

“We filed a missing-person report in Hamilton, hoping it wasn’t her in the boat,” Holmes-Pounders said.

The two daughters were Hood’s only children. She also has two granddaughters, ages 11 and 12.

The granddaughters have stayed composed as best as they can, Kim Holmes said. She said it’s difficult to immediately process something like this. “I think we’re still just in shock.”

Dwight Rodocker, Hood’s brother-in-law, had feared the worst Thursday night. “We’d heard a boat had gone down,” he said. “We tried calling Mary and Butch and couldn’t get them on their cell phones.”

Rodocker said the family has received a great deal of support from the community during recovery efforts.

“We want to thank everybody; all the people in the search and rescue effort and those who supported us by bringing food and comfort,” Rodocker said.

A multitude of agencies have helped with the recovery efforts, including the Army Corps of Engineers, Colbert and Lauderdale EMAs, the Colbert County Dive Team, TVA Police, Alabama Marine Police, Florence police and the U.S. Coast Guard.

Melton said the Corps of Engineers sent divers in Sunday because they are equipped for deep-water diving. “I can’t say enough good things about them coming in and helping us,” he said. “There are some mighty good people in that organization.”

Bernie Delinski can be reached at 740-5739 or bernie.delinski@timesdaily.com.