Villa Park : Girl, 12, Presumed Dead in Havasu Boat Accident

A 12-year-old Villa Park girl was missing and presumed dead after falling from a boat her father was operating at Lake Havasu, police said Monday.

Carrie Ann Hutson was a passenger in a 14-foot Campbell Cruiser driven by her father, Michael David Hutson, when the incident occurred at 5 p.m. Sunday.

The girl was leaning over the stern of the boat, dangling a T-shirt in the water when she fell. Her mother, Linda Hutson, and several friends were also aboard the craft.

“There’s a good chance the shirt may have become caught in the boat’s propeller and pulled the child into the water,” said Lt. Tom Madaras of the Lake Havasu City Police Dept.

She was not wearing a life jacket and may have been struck by a disabled boat that was being towed by her father’s craft, he added.

Nancy Wegner, a spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office, said several other boaters saw the accident and immediately began searching for the girl.

Divers from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office and the Lake Havasu Police Dept. searched for the body until dark Sunday and again on Monday. The search was called off at 2:15 p.m. Monday after rescuers dived repeatedly in 60-foot-deep water, but failed to find the body.