Memorial Day boating trip turns fatal on Lake Lewisville

A Memorial Day boating outing on Lake Lewisville ended in tragedy near Eagle Point Marina after Jeffery Poarch, 48, fell into the water while he and his brother were trying to dock their boat.

Lewisville Fire and Texas Parks and Wildlife responded around 7 p.m. Sunday, May 24, to a reported drowning near the marina. When crews arrived, they found an unconscious man who had already been pulled from the water. Responders began resuscitation efforts, but Poarch was pronounced dead at the hospital.

The sequence was brief and violent. According to the account, Poarch struggled to climb back aboard or reach safety after entering the water, then slipped under. What should have been a routine docking maneuver instead became a fatal emergency in one of North Texas’ busiest recreation corridors.

Lake Lewisville draws boaters and swimmers from Carrollton, Collin County and communities across the region, especially on holiday weekends when marinas, ramps and shoreline coves fill quickly. The death near Eagle Point Marina was the first reported drowning at Lake Lewisville in 2026, even as public reports indicate at least eight deaths were tied to the lake in 2025. That history gives this latest case added weight for families planning summer trips on the reservoir.

Texas Parks and Wildlife is still investigating, and the full chain of events has not been publicly settled. But the immediate danger is already clear: a moment at the dock, a loss of balance in the water and the small margin for error that comes with open water can turn a day on the lake into a fatal scene in seconds.

For boaters heading to Lake Lewisville, the warning is simple and urgent. Wear life jackets, keep dock-side movement deliberate and treat every boarding and docking attempt as a high-risk moment, especially on crowded holiday weekends. At a lake as heavily used as this one, basic water safety is often the difference between a close call and a loss that reaches far beyond the marina.