Kentucky doctor’s body found after plunge over cliff on mower into Lake Cumberland
Rescuers found the body of a Kentucky doctor Friday who plunged over a cliff on a zero-turn riding lawnmower and landed in Lake Cumberland.
A non-profit group using sonar equipment located the body of Dr. Robert Supinski near his home in 82 feet of water, said Capt. Troy McLin with the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office.
Divers with the Somerset-Pulaski County Rescue Squad brought Supinski’s body to the surface.
Supinski’s home overlooks the lake in the Slate Branch area. The yard is flat but borders a bluff about 150 feet high that drops off steeply to the lake, McLin said.
Supinski, 66, was mowing his yard Wednesday afternoon.
When his wife didn’t hear the mower, she went outside to look for Supinski, then called police, McLin said.
There were tracks in the yard indicating the mower went through a fence and over the cliff, McLin said.
Searchers rappelled over the cliff but didn’t find Supinski. They later found the mower in the lake, in about 20 feet of water, McLin said.
The mower was a large Exmark model with a rollbar over the seat and a seat belt.
Supinski had been strapped in, but the seat came off the mower at some point during the accident. It was missing when searchers found the mower, McLin said.
The seat is somewhat buoyant, so may have helped carry Supinski on the current after going into the water, McLin said.
Members of the Somerset-Pulaski County Rescue Squad, employees of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources and others searched unsuccessfully Wednesday and Thursday for Supinski’s body.
A volunteer search organization called Bruce’s Legacy joined the search Friday and located Supinski’s body within a few hours.
The organization has specialized equipment for underwater searches, including sonar.
Supinski’s body was near the site where he went over the cliff, McLin said.
Bruce’s Legacy, based in Wisconsin, is named in honor of Bruce Cormican, a firefighter who died while trying to recover a drowning victim, according to its site.
Supinski, an orthopedic surgeon, completed medical school at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 1980 and was licensed in Kentucky in 2011, according to the Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure.
State records show he didn’t renew his license after February 2020 and he was inactive as a physician.
Before his retirement, Supinski had been injured when a wave hit a boat and flipped it over while he and family members were deep-sea fishing, McLin said.
