He fell off his canoe at a Florida park, then entered ‘treacherous terrain,’ cops say
A day out on the water turned into a life or death struggle for a man in Central Florida.
Davidson Anjab disappeared around 4 p.m. Sunday after his canoe flipped at the Alexander Springs Recreation Area in Altoona. He was with two other men, who were able to get back on the boat and report the accident.
The two remaining men reportedly told authorities that Anjab swam back to land and “yelled to them that he could walk back and meet up with them,” the post said. He was not heard from again.
After “roughly 40 hours” in the wild, the Leesburg man was located about a tenth of a mile from where his friends last saw him in an “extremely dense” area of the forest.
“Significantly dehydrated,” the 39-year-old was found by a rescue party made up of officers from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. They searched for him on foot, according to a Facebook post from the sheriff’s office.
Other rescue units, including K-9 deputies and marine patrol, searched 3,000 acres with no luck.
Anjab was taken to the hospital to receive fluids and other medical attention.
Lt. John Herrell of the Lake County Sheriff’s Department said the outcome could have been different, and that he’s lucky to be alive.
“What he didn’t realize was how treacherous this terrain and this environment is,” he said. “It’s incredibly thick.”
