North Carolina man drowns trying to rescue stray dog

MINT HILL, N.C. -- A man drowned Saturday after he and his wife fell into a pond at a golf course when he tried to rescue a stray dog in the water, authorities said.

Charlotte Fire Department divers found Glen Doherty, 49, about 15 feet from the shore in the pond on the course in the Olde Sycamore community in Mint Hill, authorities said.

His wife, Barbara, had been clinging to a drainage pipe in the frigid water, and told firefighters her husband had gone under, Mint Hill fire chief John Phillips said.

Barbara Doherty, 52, said she went into the pond to rescue her husband, who was not a good swimmer.

An emergency team tried to resuscitate the man as he was loaded into a helicopter and taken to Carolinas Medical Center. He was later pronounced dead, Phillips said.

Phillips said the pond is sloped steeply on all four sides and lined with plastic.

"If you go in you're not going to crawl out of it," he said. "It would be like trying to climb up a wet sliding board."

Barbara Doherty was taken to Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte with symptoms of mild hypothermia and later released.

Firefighters also pulled three dogs from the water, the stray and two dogs that belonged to the couple.