A Missouri man is being hailed as a hero after saving two people who drifted away from a pontoon boat, then drowning himself. KCTV and KQ2 report that 66-year-old David Moore of St. Joseph was out on Smithville Lake on Aug. 17 with his family when his fiancee's 5-year-old son, who was wearing a life jacket, fell off the pontoon and started being pulled away by the current. A second person, who wasn't wearing a life jacket, also ended up in the water, and Moore dove in after both of them, despite not having a life jacket on himself.
Moore, who family members say was a strong swimmer, was somehow able to get the other two back to the safety of the pontoon, but the current ended up pulling him too far away for him to be helped back on board. "Moore's head submerged three times before he was not seen," KCTV reports. His body was later recovered by the Missouri State Highway Patrol. Relatives say they don't believe he'd been drinking, but they're awaiting an autopsy.
"David spent a lifetime helping others out the best he could," reads a GoFundMe set up by a longtime friend for funeral expenses, which has since been halted by the organizer, per USA Today. "David lost his life helping others out and wouldn't have had it end any other way." Moore's family, and the MSHP, are now urging others to wear their life jackets when out on the lake, which hadn't had a drowning yet this year until Moore, per authorities. (More Missouri stories.)
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