New Search Boat Debuts In Autauga County

It’s been nearly 6 months since David Taylor drowned here in Autaugaville. But Autauga County Sheriff’s Deputies are now better prepared for the next time something like that happens. 

 

This is the first boat that the Sheriff’s Office has had in about 20 years. It has a state of the art sonar system to see exactly what’s going on under the water.

 

And Chief Deputy Joe Sedinger says he thinks it could have made a difference last December when David Taylor went missing.

 

“We spent 14 days in Autaugaville in the gravel pit down there. We had equipment from all around come up there. Homeland Security sent equipment, sent divers, rescue squad, fire department. We just felt like if we had a boat we could have helped out more,” said Sedinger.

 

Sheriff Herbie Johnson applied for a grant from the Department of Homeland security after the lengthy search for David Taylor.

 

The grant covered almost $40,000 for the new search boat.

 

Willie Taylor, the father of last year’s drowning victim, is glad that some good is coming out of his son’s death.

 

“A new boat and all, that counts you know,” said Taylor.

 

He says that even though it took about two weeks to find his sons body, he has a lot of respect for all the law enforcement involved in the search.

 

“They did a real good job. The stayed with it and did a real good job. All I can say is that I’m sorry about it. I’m sorry about he got drowned. It always cross my mind pretty regular,” said Taylor.

 

It crosses the minds of the Sheriff’s Office regularly too. This new boat should help deputies cover all of the river that runs through the county.

 

“We have 55 miles of river. This boat will be very helpful on that. You don’t really think of it that long but you look at the river, the way it runs up and down up and down, it’s 55.6 miles,” said Sedinger.

 

The Sheriff hopes to have the boat ready by July 4th.