Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) enforcement agents are investigating a fatal boating incident in Cameron Parish.
Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies recovered the body of Louis Kibodeaux, 45, of Lake Charles, from the Intracoastal Waterway near Willow Lake around 10:30 p.m. on Oct. 3.
A 26-year-old female passenger was found alive clinging to a capsized flat bottom vessel by a passing tugboat around 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 3. She was then transported to a Lake Charles hospital where she is in critical condition.
LDWF agents along with the Cameron Parish Sheriff’s Office, Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office and U.S. Coast Guard searched the area for Kibodeaux’s body after receiving the distress call from the tugboat.
LDWF agents recovered the 15-foot flat bottom vessel. The vessel appears to have had a severe head-on collision with an unknown object that ejected Kibodeaux and the female passenger into the water. Neither person was wearing a personal flotation device at the time of impact.
LDWF will be the lead investigative agency for this boating crash incident. Kibodeaux’s body was turned over to the Cameron Parish Coroner’s Office to determine an official cause of death.