Autopsy results
confirm cause
of death drowning

By Mary Garrison
Tribune-Courier Features Editor
mgarrison@tribunecourier.com

GILBERTSVILLE – After nearly six weeks of combing the shores and waters of Kentucky Lake, the body of 69-year-old Robert Bramlett has been recovered. Bramlett was discovered Tuesday afternoon by a fisherman on the riverbank, approximately 800 yards below Kentucky Dam.

While initially unidentified, officials sent Bramlett’s body to the Madisonville Medical Examiner’s Office for confirmation. Through medical and dental records, it was confirmed that the body was, in fact, Bramlett. According to a statement issued by the Marshall County Office of Emergency Management, autopsy results were consistent with drowning.

Bramlett went missing from the Little Bear area, near Rocky Point on Nov. 28, 2009. Family members had become concerned when, after a day of fishing, Bramlett had not returned home by nightfall.

Emergency personnel found Bramlett’s truck and two dogs at the scene. Law enforcement then traced Bramlett’s cell phone signal and found his fishing boat had run aground in Grand Rivers. His fishing gear and phone were still inside.

It was a ghostly reminder of the tragedy that took place some 11 months before, when three Graves County teenagers fell victim to the icy January waters of Kentucky Lake.

Rescue workers spent more than a month searching for the missing teens, however Director of Marshall County Emergency Management Melissa Combs said this situation was perhaps more trying.

“In January I felt like we were given a puzzle,” Combs said. “But this ... our biggest challenge was that we had no point of entry. We didn’t have anyone who could tell us ‘okay, the last time I saw him was right in that area.’”

Combs said that lack of direction broadened the potential search area to some 6,000 square acres of water. The unknown coupled with a time gap of some four hours made search efforts difficult at best, despite the availability and use of new equipment obtained in the wake of the January 2009 drowning incident.

Office of Emergency Management personnel Duane Hawes said rescue crews had access to new side-scan sonar equipment, and a towfish, which broadens detection range to include areas within two feet of lake bottom.

Hawes said the Marshall County Sheriff’s Department assisted in re-enactment scenarios, as well.

Combs said rescue crews continued full-scale recovery efforts for two and one-half weeks after Bramlett’s disappearance. However, while the operation was scaled back, often due to wind, it was never fully concluded.

“We’ve still been sending boats and people out there, whenever they can do it,” Hawes said.

Now with the discovery of Bramlett’s body, Combs said she hopes Bramlett’s wife and two daughters will be able to move into the next phase of the grieving process.

“Marshall County Emergency Management would like to thank everyone for their prayers and support during this event,” Combs said in a statement issued to the press.

“We ask that you continue to support the family as they begin this chapter of their tragic loss.”