Crews search Lynches River for missing boater

JOHNSONVILLE — Local public safety officers are searching for a fisherman who went missing Wednesday somewhere along Lynches River in Johnsonville.

Robert Canteen Jr., 51, of Conway was dropped off by his wife, Pearl Canteen, at Odell Venter’s Landing on the river about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, S.C. Department of Natural Resources Lt. Robert McCullough said.

Pearl Canteen said her husband was in a one-man fishing boat with a trolling motor. She returned to the landing at 4:30 p.m. to check on him because she hadn’t heard from him, and when she arrived, she didn’t see any sign of him, McCullough said.

“I called him on the cell phone at 4:30 (p.m.)and there was no answer. I got to the landing at 4:50 (p.m.) and he was not here,” she said.

Some other fishermen were in the area at the time and went looking for her husband, she said. In a short while, they returned to call emergency personnel and report that they had found the overturned boat about a mile below the landing.

DNR officers, Florence County sheriff’s deputies and South Lynches Fire Department personnel responded to the scene to search for Canteen. DNR officers found Canteen’s boat capsized, a seat and a life jacket floating in the water.

“The last thing he said to me after he got everything into the boat was, ‘Pearl, I love you.  Take care of yourself,’” she said. “I asked him if he had his cell phone, and he said yes.”

Canteen’s son, Robert Canteen III of Myrtle Beach, said his father knew the river well and they’d often fished together there.

The Canteens are from Johnsonville, but now reside in Conway, and Robert Canteen Jr. often returns to fish his favorite fishing spots.

“He would not go out without a life jacket on, because he couldn’t swim,” his son said.

Wednesday’s search was conducted until about 2 a.m. Thursday, Pearl Canteen said, and it continued at first light of day Thursday.

Stay with scnow.com, WBTW News13 and the Morning News as this story develops.