A search party confirmed Wednesday the greatest fears of a local family whose son fell off a bass boat four days ago: Glen Ray Toney, 24, was dead, his body found underwater, pinned against a submerged tree.

Toney, a Lacombe area father of two who was soon to be married, was found just yards away from where he lost his footing and fell in the West Pearl River about one mile east of Lock 1 near the Pearl River Navigational Canal Sunday during a family fishing trip, said Capt. Len Yokum, director of Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries’ Region 7 enforcement division.

The discovery between 7:30 and 9 p.m. ended a three-day search in which special operation deputies from the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office and fisheries’ rescue agents combed the area in boats, dragged the river with nets and sent divers searching the muddy water. Nothing was discovered. As darkness fell Tuesday, rescue officials were wrapping up the day’s search when they “decided one more time” to pull on a submerged tree that’s limbs were jutting out of the water, Sheriff’s Office spokesman George Bonnett said.

“They hooked on debris, moved it more than previously,” and Toney’s body was freed, Bonnett said.

Toney’s death on Thursday was ruled accidental, likely caused from a combination of blunt force trauma to the head, neck and arm from the boat’s propeller and a combination of asphyxia from drowning, St. Tammany Parish Coroner’s Office spokesman Mark Lombard said.

The news may give closure to Toney’s family members, who since Sunday had camped out at the Lock 1 dock waiting for news on Toney’s fate.

Toney’s death marks the second such fatal accident in area waterways this month.

Earlier this month, Jordan Russell, a 15-year-old Fontainebleau High School student, drowned in the Bogue Falaya River while his friend’s watched from ashore.

Russell, attempting to catch a fish with his bare hands, drowned while pinned underwater by rushing currents after recent rains flooded the river.

In each death, a large amount of underwater debris, mostly logs and stumps but occasionally washing machines, tires and other industrial goods hindered rescue attempts.

In Toney’s case, it was stumps and logs that made it difficult to locate his body for three days.

“With the amount of debris on the bottom, everything underwater looked the same,” Yokum said of a sonar search.

Underwater cameras may have helped. But with at least a $10,000 price tag, Wildlife and Fisheries doesn’t have the budget to support such purchases, Yokum said.

Toney’s death marks the third such boating accident death this year and the second in two weeks throughout Yokum’s Region 7, a territory consisting of East and West Feliciana, East Baton Rouge, Asuncion, Livingston, St. Helena, Washington, St. Tammany and Tangipahoa parishes.

The previous fatality occurred when two boats collided, flipping one and killing its driver, he said.

Neither Toney nor the other victim wore life vests, a crucial protective measure that saves 80 percent of people who are tossed from boats, Yokum said.

“If this is showing us what we’re looking forward to this years, it’s going to be a rough summer,” Yokum said. “We don’t need that.”

Ironically, all three deaths occurred in the same month as Louisiana Safe Boating Week, declared by Gov. Bobby Jindal for May 17-23.

The week, dedicated to help boaters keep abreast of safety measures and Louisiana boating laws, follows a deadly year in 2007 in which 30 Louisiana boaters died.