'Haunted' Lake Lanier takes seventh victim this year as man fails to resurface

30 August 2023 , 16:55

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Between 1995 and 2022, 216 have died in Lake Lanier in Georgia (Image: AP)

A 23-year-old never resurfaced this week after he went underwater in a Georgia lake that's widely believed to be haunted, making him the seventh person this year to meet death at the infamous body of water.

Edgar Steven Cruz Martinez drowned on Saturday in Lake Lanier, which has a morbid reputation in connection to the many victims pulled from the waters. Game wardens recovered Martinez's body in 10 feet of water, WAGA reports.

"A lot of people aren’t used to swimming in choppy water. It’s not like a pool out here. It’s completely different, so you can get swept out pretty easy," Georgia DNR Game Warder Cody Tanner explained.

As the summer comes to a close, Tanner advised that people taking a risky swim in the Lake should prepare for warmer waters. "With it being the end of the summer, it gets brutally hot out here sometimes, with the water being warm as well," Tanner explained. "People don’t realize they’re dehydrating, and they’ll get out pretty deep and their legs will start locking up, and they’ll go straight down."

Edgar Steven Cruz Martinez drowned on Saturday in Lake Lanier. Authorities found his body in 10ft of water (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Lake Lanier is considered to be the most haunted lake in America, with more than 200 people having died there between 1994 and 2022, according to data from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Law Enforcement Division.

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The lake is named after a Confederate army veteran and was artificially made by the US government in the 1950s. By the time it was finally constructed, some 250 families were displaced, many of them believed to be Black. This number is heavily contested.

According to Styleblueprint.com, "Many of the structures, buildings, and roads that were flooded during the lake’s creation were left as is. Divers find eerie relics of streets, walls, and houses intact, like an abandoned ghost town on the lake’s bottom. Discovery Channel... proved... that there are 20 cemeteries with headstones and graves still at the bottom of the lake that were never removed. The ancestors of the disrupted populations were never relocated, thus sparking many stories of haunted encounters."

Individuals who go swimming in Lake Lanier seem to die under strange circumstances or have something mysteriously attack or harm them.

So far this year, seven people have died on the lake. Three died in July alone (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Towards the beginning of July, a rabid beaver attacked a little girl who was swimming on private property in a portion of the lake. The girl's father rushed into action to save the girl, beating and drowning the beaver in the process of the rescue. Local outlets report that the beaver, weighing 50-55lb and among the largest seen on the lake, began gnawing at the girl's leg.

After the beaver was drowned, the girl was rushed out of the water and taken to a local hospital. There, she received a rabies shot for the bite.

This case was one of more tame incidents to occur on the lake, however. On July 27, a 24-year-old man was suddenly electrocuted when he jumped in Lake Lanier, which stumped authorities. It was later determined that electrical currents had leaked into the lake, which causes a phenomenon called electric shock drowning, NBC said. This is when a swimmer's body is incapacitated due to the shock, which often leads to an unfortunate aquatic death.

The death of the man electrocuted on the lake came just a few days before two other men tragically perished at Lake Lanier on July 31, officially doubling the number of people who died at the lake this year.

Usher's stepson also perished at Lake Lanier. In June 2012, A family friend, Jeffrey Hubbard, was driving a jet ski that accidentally crashed into 11-year-old Kile Glover who was on a rubber inner tube. Kile's death sparked heartache for the family, who described him as the "most fun, creative, sweet and respectful boy."

Mataeo Smith