Search and rescue teams search Sunday, August 9, 2015, for a missing person at The Narrows on Barren River Lake. (Bac Totrong/photo@bgdailynews.com)

Divers at Barren River Lake found the body of apparent drowning victim Clay Nelson on Tuesday afternoon, bringing an end to a search that began two days earlier.

Nelson, 21, of Bowling Green, was reportedly diving into a cove near The Narrows campground from some rocks Sunday morning and was swimming toward a pontoon boat when he went below the water and failed to resurface.

A 911 call shortly after 9 a.m. Sunday prompted a response from several search and rescue agencies.

“The victim was found at the approximate location of where he went down,” said Tracy Shirley, director of Glasgow/Barren County Emergency Management.

Shirley said Nelson was at the lake with two other people when he went missing.

Boats from the Barren County Search and Rescue Squad and agencies from other counties were on the lake on Sunday and Monday, using sonar to aid in their search and deploying divers when sonar from two or more boats identified an object in the water.

Darkness halted the search on the first two days rescue personnel recovered Nelson’s body at 1:31 p.m. Tuesday.

Officer Lucas Hurt of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife said an autopsy will be performed.

Nelson was a kicker for the South Warren High School football team and walked on at Western Kentucky University as a kicker in 2012. 

His father, Mark Nelson, coached football at Greenwood High School before starting the football program at South Warren in 2010. Mark Nelson also played football at WKU from 1979-82.

“The thoughts and prayers of the entire WKU football family are with Mark Nelson and his family with the loss of their son, and former Hilltopper walk-on kicker, Clay Nelson,” WKU said in a statement issued Tuesday. “Once a Hilltopper, always a Hilltopper, and we join all of Bowling Green in mourning this tragedy.”

Nelson’s death was the second in less than two months at Barren River Lake near The Narrows.

Nathan Jury, 18, of Glasgow, drowned while diving with friends at the lake July 18.

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