A small boat carrying eight people capsized Monday during a Memorial Day outing, killing six women aboard and a man who tried to rescue them, authorities said. The operator of the boat was able to swim ashore and one person on the craft was rescued, authorities said. The seven bodies were recovered from the 25-acre Lake Tillatoba on Monday night, said authorities, who were unsure how the accident occurred. Yalobusha County Coroner Stanley True identified the victims, all of Coffeville, as Eddie Rounds, 41; Janice Martin, 20; her cousins Anna Martin, 21, and Martin's sister, Marlee, 20; Sherry Taylor, 21; Sandra Baker, 24; and Sherry Jenkins, 19. True said the women were passengers in a 16-foot, flat-bottom aluminum boat piloted by Robert Armstrong, also of Coffeville. Armstrong was able to swim ashore after the boat capsized, said True. Rounds drowned when he attempted to help the women, True said. Melvin Pernell, who also was on the boat, was rescued by a fisherman, Armstrong said. The coroner said there were no life jackets on the craft. The boat was designed to hold up to five people, said Deputy Sheriff Homer Melton. The Sheriff's Department said rescue workers, including divers, were called to the lake shortly after 4 p.m. Officials said the victims' bodies were recovered by crews who dragged the lake. The lake is located off Mississippi Highway 330 between the towns of Tillatoba and Coffeeville in north-central Mississippi.
