3 rescued after spending 16 hours in the marsh

Kerry Schexnayder, Rylie and brother Dustin rescued.

John Wingrove had just dropped his line at his favorite bass fishing spot in Lac Des Allemands Sunday morning when he and his friend, Jesse Bates, heard someone yelling for help. They couldn’t believe their eyes when they looked toward the shore.

“The guy and little girl were standing on a log in the water,” Wingrove said. “They told me their boat sunk Saturday and they had stayed there all night long.” In his more than 20 years of frequenting the spot, it was the first time he’d seen anything like this.

It was Kerry Schexnayder and his 7-year-old daughter, Rylie, who were clinging to the log and covered in mosquito bites.

As Wingrove and Bates, both of LaPlace, rescued them, a worried Schexnayder told them his brother was still in the marsh. An hour later, they found Dustin, 38 years old, who was mentally disabled from an earlier accident, but he was in  good condition.

“Thank God that was my little spot and I go there every Sunday morning,” Wingrove said. “That morning, we saved some lives.”

The three who were rescued had gone fishing the day earlier on Saturday (Oct. 12) on the lake. As they readied to leave around 4 p.m., Schexnayder told his girlfriend, Leah Marie Labit of Destrehan, a large wave hit.

“Everything went so fast,” she recounted of his details. “The boat started going down. He was trying to hold on to our daughter and his brother, but he had to let go of Dustin. It took them swimming three to four miles until they finally reached the marsh.”

Labit said he called out for his brother a couple of times, but thought the worst when he got no reply.

By then, he had placed Rylie on a high cypress branch, to be safe in case “anything attacked them. He could hear the gators all night. He felt it in his chest they were so loud.”

Soon came the darkness, and the two were forced to spend the night in the marsh.

“He had her in his arms the whole entire time,” Labit said.

During this time, they had heard a boat nearby, but Schexnayder’s attempts to get their attention, which included yelling for help and using his daughter’s pink-and-blue lighted Keds, did not work.

It wasn’t until 7:30 a.m. Sunday that Wingrove and Bates happened along and rescued them.

They were all taken to the Des Allemands boat launch and met by sheriff’s deputies, EMTs and representatives from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

“Aside from Dustin receiving fluids and hundreds of bug bites, they are overall healthy,” Labit said. “It’s amazing. It’s the most miraculous thing I’ve ever heard.”

Describing her daughter as one of the toughest people she’s ever known, Labit said Rylie talked about their mishap like they’d gone camping and was just happy that everyone was alive.

“That girl is beyond fearless,” she said.

Born at three pounds, Rylie is a tomboy who has grown up sturdy and continually begs her dad to go fishing.

“That was literally the most traumatic thing that’s ever happened to him,” Labit recalled of Schexnayder. “He just sat and sobbed talking about having to choose between his daughter and his brother, saying, “That whole night, I thought he was dead and it was my fault.”

But Labit added, “That kind of stuff doesn’t happen everyday … especially when you have a happy ending.”

Go fish

  • Oct. 12: Kerry Schexnayder, his 7-year-old daughter, Rylie, and brother, Dustin, leave the boat launch in Hahnville to fish in Lac Des Allemands.
  • 4 p.m. the same day: Their boat is overtopped by a large wave and sinks, leaving all three in the marsh.
  • 7:30 a.m.: The three are rescued by two LaPlace fishermen.

 

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