NEW ORLEANS — Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries enforcement agents are investigating a fatal boating incident that left one person dead in Livingston Parish.
17-year-old Madison Bradley of Slidell was on a pontoon boat with five other people on July 4. Other passengers on the boat told officials she was riding on the bow in front of the protective rail with another male passenger. The boat hit a wake from a passing vessel, knocking Bradley and the male passenger into the water.
The LDWF said Bradley suffered severe injuries from the boat engine's propellers and did not resurface. The male passenger resurfaced with minor injuries.
LDWF agents said they were notified about a missing boater around 5:40 p.m.
Officials say the body of Bradley was recovered from the Blind River around 8 p.m. on July 4.
Her parents said she has been boating since she was a kid.
“I never thought we’d be in this situation. We grew up on boats,” her father, Michael Bradley, said. “We always played by the rules; if you come to a wake you slow down. You just have to be safe out there and if you think this can’t happen to you, you’re wrong because I thought this couldn’t happen to me.”
Madison's grandmother Linda Bradley said she graduated from Northshore High School in May.
“Madison was so family oriented. She loved and lived life to the fullest. She was a sweet, loving, generous joy filled spirit filled young lady," Bradley said. "She was a light for all of us. I don’t know how we do this without her.”
Dustin Crowe, 33, was the boat's operator, and LDWF arrested him for vehicular homicide, operating or driving a vessel while impaired (DWI), and reckless operation of a vessel. He was booked into the Livingston Parish Jail.
Bradley's body was turned over to the Livingston Parish Coroner's Office to determine an official cause of death.
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