Drunken boating trip leads to search, arrest

TALKEETNA — When an Anchorage man out fishing early Sunday morning started taking on water he ended up swimming to shore, but Alaska State Troopers say he shouldn’t have been out there in the first place and arrested him for drunken driving.

According to a trooper press statement, the call to respond to Kashwitna Lake near Mile 76.5 Parks Highway came in at 1 p.m. Initial reports were of a boat capsized in the lake. Callers reported seeing a person a half-hour prior trying to bail water out of the boat.

Troopers say George Withey, 47, was the boater. During the investigation, they learned that Withey woke up at 6:30 a.m. and took his friend’s 11-foot Coleman boat out to fish for trout.

At 11:30 a.m., troopers report, the boat started taking on water. Withey’s bailing attempts met with little success.

“Withey abandoned the boat and swam to shore then proceeded to walk around the marshy edge of the lake approximately one mile to a friend’s cabin,” troopers report.

At 12:30 p.m., a floatplane landed on the lake and idled over to the boat. The pilot tied the boat to one of his floats, towed it to shore, and called troopers.

At 1:30 p.m. troopers, medics and the Borough’s Dive Rescue Team began a search of the area trying to find Withey. They got help from two private aircraft in the area.

An hour later, at 2:50 p.m., Withey’s girlfriend called troopers to say Withey had called her saying he was at his friend’s cabin and that he was fine.

Troopers spoke to Withey and say they believe he was drunk when he was out on the lake. He was arrested for felony DUI and for violating his probation, since the terms of his release from prison for a previous felony DUI required he not drink alcohol.

Withey was jailed at the Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility on $10,000 bail and will need to find someone to watch over him before he can be released. Jail records early Monday afternoon showed he was still incarcerated.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.