TRAGIC: Franklin County Search and Rescue, along with other agencies, combed through the Kentucky River searching for a missing man on Sunday after a tubing incident Saturday caused a group of five to get pulled underwater.
Lydia Anglin and her fiancé, 25-year-old Michael Looby, were camping at Still Waters Campground in Franklin County on Saturday. The couple was with family when they decided to go tubing in Elkhorn Creek.
Within 36 hours, the creek rose nearly four feet after heavy rainfall overnight. Elkhorn Creek sits at almost nine feet while the Kentucky River sits at almost 10 feet as of Sunday evening.
Search efforts continued Sunday with the help of the Lexington Fire Department in the Kentucky River, which is connected to the creek using sonar and devices. Search and rescue say they will be retrieving better sonar to comb through the waters. Search efforts will pick up again at 9 a.m. on Monday
25-year-old Kentucky man drowns after weekend tubing accident in Elkhorn Creek
June 10, 2025 WDRB-TV
It happened Saturday near Still Waters campgroundTop of Form
Bottom of Form
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A Kentucky man drowned over the weekend when he and four family members were pulled under water while they were tubing on Elkhorn Creek in Franklin County. It happened Saturday near Still Waters campground, according to a report from LEX 18 in Lexington. The tube overturned, and the family went under.
Four people made it back to shore safely, but 25-year-old Michael Looby never resurfaced. Searchers found his body Monday afternoon. "We were not even two or three minutes in," said Lydia Anglin, Looby's fiancée. "There's a large tree with exposed roots in the middle of the creek, and you either have to go to the right or the left. The current was so strong you couldn't. It just went straight toward the tree."
Anglin said they took all the right precautions, including wearing life jackets, but it still wasn't enough. She said there were no flags or warnings to alert people of the danger.
Tragically, Looby and Anglin were planning to be married next June.
FRANKFORT, Ky. (KT) – The Franklin County Coroner’s Office has released the name of the person who drowned over the weekend while tubing on the rain-swollen Elkhorn Creek, and whose body was not recovered until Monday as a Clark County resident.
Coroner Will Harrod says 25-year-old Michael Looby of Winchester was pronounced dead at the scene around 1:30 Monday afternoon. Looby had reportedly been tubing on Elkhorn Creek Saturday afternoon near Still Waters Campground on Strohmeier Bypass when his tube got stuck under a tree and he didn't resurface.
