(BLUE RIVER) – Indiana Conservation Officers and the Crawford County Sheriff’s Department say they likely saved a man’s life on Sunday.
According to police, 54-year-old Morris Ferguson, of Pekin, was intoxicated and passed out in a raft with a bottle of rum in his lap and floated more than 7 miles down the flooded Blue River.
After receiving multiple calls, Conservation Officers Neal Brewington and Jim Schreck responded and were unable to reach Ferguson on the raft or awaken him despite shouting and blowing a whistle from the bank.
Officers Dennis Talley and Logan Hodges launched a boat while Brewington and Schreck set up a tag line across the river and rescue swimmer got in the river in hopes of preventing Ferguson from going over the boiling Milltown Dam.
Fortunately, a Crawford County Deputy spotted Ferguson who washed ashore a couple of miles above the dam and was able to reach him.
After a medical evaluation, Officer Hodges arrested Ferguson on a charge of public intoxication.
