TRR photo by Laurie Stuart Brian Diehl, Lake Huntington Volunteer Fire Department Assistant Chief, and Joseph Gries, Captain, mark the spot where witnesses said that Jahrel Jeffers fell some 39.2 feet to shallow water below. (Click for larger image)

Water accidents leave two dead, one injured

By DAVID HULSE

RIVER VALLEY — Water-related accidents along the Delaware River claimed two lives and left another hospitalized Monday evening.

The Sullivan County Sheriff’s Department investigated a drowning at Washington Lake in the Town of Highland at 3:30 p.m. Witnesses told detectives that they observed the victim, Joseph Hamulak, age 87, of Yulan, wading in the water when suddenly he was bobbing in the water some 25 feet from shore. Witnesses brought him back to shore and CPR was started. The American Legion Ambulance and Yulan Fire Department were called. He could not be resuscitated. Hamulak was pronounced dead at the scene by Sullivan County Coroner Elton Harris.

Authorities say a 17-year-old Town of Greenville youth was apparently drowned in the Delaware during the late afternoon of June 24 near the Elephants Feet rocks opposite Eddy Farm in Sparrowbush.

Daquan Cobb was said to have been among a party of four teenagers who attempted a swim across the river from New York to Pennsylvania shortly after 5:00 p.m. One of the group turned back and the victim faltered and was lost in the deeper current near the Pennsylvania shore, despite the efforts of the remaining two swimmers, according to Orange County Fire Coordinator James Rohner.