Lamar man drowns on Clarendon side of Lake Marion, Orangeburg man killed in separate incident

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An Orangeburg man and a Lamar man both drowned on Lake Marion in two separate incidents over the weekend. Clarendon County Coroner Hayes F. Samuels said the body of 20-year-old Noah Gerard Smith IV of Lamar was found near Polly's Landing in Summerton on Saturday afternoon. He said the likely cause of death is drowning, although the young man's body will be sent to the Medical University of South Carolina for an autopsy. State Department of Natural Resources Capt. Robert McCullough said Monday night that Smith was swimming off a pontoon boat, and that the boat moved away due to wind gusts. "He was unable to get back to the boat," McCullough said. In a separate incident on the Orangeburg County side of the lake, the department's dive team recovered the body of 78-year-old Olin Nelson Tindal Sr. of Orangeburg was found Sunday morning. McCullough said Tindal went missing on the lake sometime Friday evening, but had little other information about the incident. He said investigators are still searching for the man's boat and its motor. Tindal's body is being sent to Newberry Pathology Associates for an autopsy. McCullough said the deaths are the first two on the lake this spring. Three men sustained serious injuries on Memorial Day after running a boat aground near the Taw Caw area of Lake Marion.