(Noble County, IN)-An off-duty Indiana State Police Corporal assigned to the Toll Road Post, and a resident of Knapp Lake in Noble County, is credited with saving the life of a 56 year old man from Cromwell who was struggling to save his own life after the boat he was in had flipped over sending him into Knapp Lake.
Corporal Peter L. Bradley, a 13 year veteran of the State Police was in his back yard on the south side of Knapp Lake this past Friday, August 15th at approximately 5:45 p.m. He said that his attention was drawn to a paddle boat that was occupied by two adult and two juvenile males. The rear of the boat was under water when Bradley walked to the shore and yelled out to them to make sure that they were all right and that they knew how to swim. The two boys were wearing life jackets at the time while the adults were not, and one of the adults answered back indicating that all four of them knew how to swim.
At that point, one of the adults got out of the boat and was trying to swim with it back to the shore. A moment later, one of the boys got out and it was at this time that the boat flipped over sending 56 year old Randall James Nicodemus and a 4 year old boy into the water. The boy immediately surfaced while Nicodemus struggled before going back under. Bradley immediately jumped into the lake and swam the approximately 50 yards to where the boat had flipped over. He estimated that Nicodemus had been three to four feet below the surface of the water for between 10 to 20 seconds and had been trying to hold onto the 4 year old to survive.
Bradley was able to grab onto Nicodemus and pull him to the surface before swimming him back to the shore. The other adult and both boys were able to swim on their own back to the shore. Noble County EMS and the Indiana Conservation Officers were contacted and Nicodemus was taken to a hospital in Goshen for treatment. Alcohol was a factor and this incident remains under investigation by the Indiana Conservation Officers.
