7-year-old drowns at Mark Twain Lake

PERRY, Mo. (AP) -- A 7-year-old boy drowned while playing with other children in Mark Twain Lake, according to the Missouri State Water Patrol.

Dalton Gibson, of Quincy, Ill., drowned Sunday near the Frank Russell Campground at the northeast Missouri lake when the boy's father left several children alone in the water while he checked on a younger child, according to a news release from the patrol.

When he returned, the children told him Dalton had gone under water and had not resurfaced, the patrol said.

The boy was found an hour later in 5 feet of water, according to the patrol. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.

In southeast Missouri, a 53-year-old man drowned Sunday afternoon in Clearwater Lake in Reynolds County.

The Water Patrol said Charles Defur, of House Springs, jumped off a pontoon boat, surfaced once and dove under the water again but did not come up. Friends located Defur and called for an ambulance, but he was pronounced dead at a medical center.