Red Bay drowning likely an 'accident'

By Staff
Jason Cannon
RED BAY – Sheriff's Investigators expect to rule the cause of a Red Bay man's drowning Tuesday night an accident.
Johnny Ward, 62, of 100 Pearson Road in Red Bay, was found in the waters of Bear Creek Canal just after midnight Wednesday. The canal crosses Alabama 11, just north of Red Bay.
While the investigation is ongoing, investigators said they feel like this was just an accident.
"It's still a death investigation because there were no witnesses but at this point we feel like this was just an unfortunate accident," Franklin County Sheriff Larry Plott said.
Authorities said a family member dropped Ward off around 6 p.m. so he could go fishing, as they have done many times before. When the family member returned around 10 p.m. to pick him up, he wasn't there.
Ward's body was recovered about 20 yards from his fishing site.
Mary Martin, a family friend who works at the Red Bay Senior Center, said she had served lunch to Ward for more than a year.
"Mr. Ward was always nice to me," she said. "He was a real friendly man."
WAFF's Josh Ault contributed to this report.