N.C. Judge Drowns After Rescuing Son in Catawba River
A North Carolina judge drowned yesterday evening after saving his 17-year-old son, who was suffering from cramps while swimming in the Catawba River.
“He got him out, and then they turned around and the judge was gone,” Burke County Sheriff John McDevitt tells the Charlotte Observer.
The son and a friend then helped pull his father, Burke County District Judge John Mull, from the water, according to the newspaper and WSOC-TV. But the judge couldn’t be revived. He had apparently been underwater a couple of minutes. He was pronounced dead at a hospital after CPR efforts failed.
An autopsy is planned to determine the exact cause of death, such as a possible heart attack.
The family has been building a home in the nearby Glen Alpine community just outside Morganton.
