A 9-year-old Peachtree City girl died Friday afternoon when she drowned while riding an inner tube in the Chattahoochee River in Forsyth County, officials said.
The victim was identified as Anna Vanhorn by the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office. She was reported missing on the river just after 4:30 p.m. Friday, officials said.
When water rescue teams found Vanhorn, she was about eight feet underwater with her life preserver on, said Capt. Jason Shivers with the Forsyth County Fire Department.
Because the river water is so cold, the emergency crews held out hope that Vanhorn might survive, so she was brought to the surface and CPR was initiated, Shivers said. But some time later Vanhorn was pronounced dead at Northside Hospital-Forsyth, he said.
At the time she went missing, Vanhorn was floating in an inner tube with a small group of people and water was being released from Buford Dam, which increases the flow in the area, Shivers said.
Because of that increased flow, a Forsyth Fire crew started downstream hoping to catch Vanhorn floating with the current in her life preserver. At the same time, another crew from Gwinnett County entered upstream and worked toward the location.
The other people in the party were able to make it safely to the bank of the river, Shivers said.
