MAN DROWNS WHILE SWIMMING BELLA VISTA LAKE

Hooks, sonar and divers probed the bottom of Bella Vista Lake for most of Sunday searching for the body of Brad Reddick. Shortly before 10 p.m., it was located.

Reddick, 23, of Jackson had been swimming with two friends Sunday afternoon when for unexplained reasons he disappeared under water.

Diane Strong, who has known Reddick since he began attending her husband's church in Cape Girardeau seven years ago, said his drowning will not be in vain.

Her hope still remains in God's ultimate purposes, she said.

A call for emergency assistance at the Bella Vista Estates subdivision off Highway 177 east of Fruitland was received at 3:47 p.m., said Capt. Charlie Griffith of the Fruitland Volunteer Fire Department.

Also assisting at the scene were the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department and the Missouri Highway Patrol.

Volunteers came to dive and look for Reddick's body, but Griffith said only certified rescue divers could participate.

"Everybody just wants to help," he said.

Griffith said it was too early to speculate on the cause.

Some members of Reddick's church, New Life World Outreach, suggested Reddick could have had an allergic reaction while he was swimming.

Although the water was not deep, search and rescue divers from the East County Fire District and the Cape Girardeau Fire Department looked for nearly six hours without results. Divers and other rescue personnel were combing an area that is between 6 and 20 feet deep, at the north end of the lake, Griffith said.

Debris in the water made it hard for divers to see beyond the flashlights in their hands, Griffith said.

"We're finding that a lot of people in the area dump their Christmas trees in the lake," he said.

In addition to divers, the searchers used small sonar devices from fishing boats.

Reddick, who sang in a worship group at his church, was planning to attend Oral Roberts University this fall on an engineering scholarship.

For 10-year-old Ryan Miller, Reddick's drowning was hard to understand. Reddick had tutored Ryan, who has cerebral palsy, in math every Tuesday.

"He has asked me how Brad could be so good and this would happen to him," said Sonya Miller, Ryan's mother.

God has a reason for everything, Strong said, as her husband, Zack, assisted searchers in one of three flat-bottomed boats.

"Sometimes the Lord just takes awhile to tell us, but he always does," she said.

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