The Chatham County Sheriff’s office said the body of Mr. Danny Bullard, 59, of Cameron, NC, was located at approximately 8:00 a.m. near the site of a Wednesday boating accident on the Cape Fear River, Agency Legal Advisor Rik Stevens said in an email release Thursday morning.
The accident was first reported by the Chatham County Emergency Operations Center Wednesday at 9:45 a.m., regarding a small vessel that had been pulled into the undercurrent of the Buckhorn Dam, on the Cape Fear River near Moncure. Bullard, one of the boat’s occupants, was pulled from the boat wearing a blck life jacket and last seen floating in the middle of the Cape Fear channel.
Stevens asked that people respect the privacy of Bullard’s family as they mourn his death.
“We want to thank each of the partner agencies involved in yesterday’s search efforts, as well as the US Army Corps of Engineers for its assistance in helping to lower the water level in the affected portion of the Cape Fear river this morning,” Stevens said in Thursday’s email. “This effort by the Corps was instrumental in the location of the body today in an area that was very likely covered in water yesterday.”
The search and rescue operations continued until after 6 p.m. Wednesday night and resumed in the morning when light allowed. Location efforts included members of Chatham County Emergency Management, the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office, the Moncure Fire Department, the North Chatham Fire Department, the Apex Fire Department, Lee County Emergency Management, Harnett County Emergency Management, North Carolina Wildlife Law Enforcement, the North Carolina State Highway Patrol and First Health of the Carolinas.
On Wednesday, Stevens said “all other appropriate agencies operating downstream” of the accident were notified as well.