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BOWIE — Randall Carpenter, 33 of Bowie, formerly of Columbus, was found dead following a two-day search, Monday, March 16, after rescuing his two children from strong waves at Amon G. Carter Lake in Bowie.
Carpenter, his children and fiancée were visiting Selma Park and the lake during spring break on Sunday, March 15, when strong winds suddenly changed the water conditions, according to KAUZ News Channel 6 and KFDX-TV. Carpenter’s fiancée said the children were playing in the shallow area of the lake when waves began to pick up.
“We just turned our back for a couple of seconds,” Carpenter’s fiancée told KAUZ. “When the wind picked up, I didn’t know that was going to happen, and everything happened too fast.”
Carpenter’s fiancée called 9-1-1. Bowie Police Department and local bass boaters quickly responded in an attempt to reach Carpenter and the children who had been swept further out into the water.
“A couple of the Bowie officers went into the water trying to get to the kids, and luckily, there were some bass boaters out there, and they came up and helped get the kids out of the water,” Bowie Police Chief Guy Green told KAUZ. “But unfortunately, nobody ever saw the dad again.”
Search and rescue efforts immediately began, but Green said high winds made the boats move too much to utilize sonar. Authorities paused the water search three hours later around 1 p.m. due to the weather conditions until the next day on Monday morning.
Bowie Police Department, Montague County Sherriff’s Office, Wise County Sherriff’s Office, Clay County Sherriff’s Office, Wichita Falls Police Department Search and Recovery Dive Team, and Texas Parks and Wildlife Game Gardens resumed the search at 8 a.m. KAUZ reported that game wardens were able to locate Carpenter’s body, and the WFPD dive team later confirmed and recovered Carpenter’s body around 10 a.m.
“In my mind, the guy died a hero trying to save those kids,” Green told KAUZ. “It probably hadn’t been for him, they might not have survived because he was trying to push them toward shore when he went underwater.”
Carpenter’s fiancée told KAUZ that the children are safe.
“What Randy did was he would always put his kids first,” she said. “He would do anything for those children.”
Carpenter was born in 1992 and attended Columbus High School as a sophomore in 2009. A memorial potluck was held for him at The Rib Shack in Sunset, Texas, on Tuesday, March 24.
