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Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) enforcement agents are investigating a fatal boating incident that occurred in Washington Parish on Nov. 29.

The body of Joe R. Newby, 50, was recovered from the Pearl River around midnight on Nov. 29.  Search and rescue crews from LDWF, the Washington Parish Sheriff’s Office and the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office are still searching for a missing boater involved in the same incident.

Agents were notified around 8:25 p.m. about two missing boaters that launched a boat on the Pearl River out of Bogalusa at Pools Bluff about a quarter of a mile north of a sill.  Agents and sheriff office deputies immediately began searching for the missing boaters.  They found Newby’s body below the sill.

LDWF will be the lead investigative agency for this fatal boating incident.  Investigators believe at this time the 14-foot vessel they were traveling in went over the sill and then capsized.  Search and rescue teams will continue to look for the other boater and the vessel.