Rescue squads from three different counties in Kentucky and Tennessee converged on the Cumberland River below Pineville near the Kentucky Utilities facility to search for the body of a Rockcastle County man on Wednesday.

Lowell McDowell, 54, of Wildie, called his wife at 6 p.m. on Tuesday using his cellphone. He had purchased a new flat-bottomed boat and was trying it out on the river. She never heard from him again.

According to Bell County Sheriff's Deputy Shawn Pursifull, McDowell's family called in a missing person's report at midnight. Police arrived to discover McDowell's boat capsized against a low river dam near a large building in the Kentucky Utilities compound across the river. The boat was held in a static location by the force of the water and undertow.

McDowell is presumed drowned.

Rescuers searched until 3 a.m. before retiring to return at 9 a.m. on Wednesday. The search continued throughout the day with additional assistance being brought in from the Claiborne County Rescue Squad later in the day.

According to the Bell County Dispatch on Thursday morning, the search had turned up empty and had been called off until 8 a.m.