LAKE MURRAY, S.C. (WSAZ) – A couple with deep West Virginia roots is missing in South Carolina.
Randy Adkins, originally from Hurricane, and his wife Kimberly, originally from Mingo County, went out on their boat this weekend on Lake Murray in South Carolina and then just disappeared. After the boat drifted into shore, the search began for the Adkins.
It seemed at first glance, a picture perfect day at Lake Murray. But then, there was that plane circling the eastern side of the lake. A DNR plane helping in what is now a multi-day search for Randy and Kimberly Adkins. Friends last saw the Lexington couple at Jake's Landing, Saturday evening, around 5.
Lieutenant Robert McCullough with the South Carolina DNR said, “Saturday afternoon at Jakes, when they left the landing, everything seemed to be fine. Everybody was good, good spirits, they were going back out on the lake.”
Their boat is a 19 and a half foot Crown Line. It turned up south of Pine Island. The craft was fully operational and undamaged. Gas and life jackets were on board. But there was no sign of the Adkins.
DNR has a theory and that's all it is right now. They think that the couple would have left the area around Jake's, and headed to the northwest, in the direction of Spence Island. The boat would have been traveling more or less into a headwind, because at the time, the wind was coming out of the west.
McCullough said, “We think that they at least made Spence’s Island out there, maybe a little past it.”
Again, Tuesday, that strong westerly wind whipped up whitecaps near Spence Plantation. DNR says if the boat got to a certain part of the lake, the wind could have pushed it to the east to Pine Island, where it was found two hours after leaving Jake’s.
Complicating the search, the depth of the water near Spence Islands is between 150 and 200 feet in some places.
McCullough said, “If something did happen tragically, and both of them went into the water and didn't come up, yes, there are some spots out there that are very deep and it would be very difficult to try to make a recovery.”
Late Tuesday afternoon, DNR had nothing encouraging to report.
The search will continue Wednesday morning.