A St. Louis man is dead after jumping from a deck into shallow water at the Lake of the Ozarks, suffering a head injury before he drowned. He was pronounced dead at the scene near the 4.8-mile marker of the Gravois Arm in Morgan County.
According to a Missouri State Highway Patrol report as detailed by ABC17NEWS, the man jumped from a deck and struck his head before going under in the shallow water. His body was later brought to Kidwell-Garber Funeral Home. The patrol's public reports do not identify the man by name, age, or the exact circumstances that led to the jump.
The death adds to a grim tally for the lake this year. Data compiled by Go Lakewide shows the Missouri State Highway Patrol has recorded 25 incidents and six fatalities on the Lake of the Ozarks in 2026, with drowning standing out as the single most common incident type. Camden County has borne the brunt of those incidents, accounting for 21 of the 25 recorded this year, per the same tracker.
A Pattern of Summer Drownings
July alone accounted for nine of the 25 incidents logged in 2026, the busiest month by far, Go Lakewide's data shows. The site also discusses summer drowning incidents, and that 31% of people involved in this year's incidents who had a recorded hometown came from outside Missouri.
Several other drownings this summer illustrate how quickly a day at the lake can turn fatal. A 35-year-old Springfield man drowned on July 22 after entering the water from a docked boat in Ledges Cove and never resurfacing, according to KRCG; his body was recovered roughly two hours later. Three days after that, a 62-year-old man from Shawnee, Kansas, drowned in Buck Creek Cove after surfacing once and then going back under, KRCG also reported, with a dive team locating him hours afterward.
Other Recent Cases at the Lake
The Lake of the Ozarks has seen a string of similarly tragic incidents in 2026. A 19-year-old man from Glenwood, Illinois, drowned at Public Beach 2 in Camden County in August 2025 after entering the water by unknown means and failing to resurface, according to FOX 2 Now. In a separate case reported by KSHB, a 3-year-old boy from Tuscumbia, Missouri, drowned after jumping from an anchored pontoon while not wearing a safety device in August 2025; that station noted the death marked Missouri State Highway Patrol Troop F's second fatality of August and seventh fatality of 2025.
Go Lakewide's drowning records also list a 25-year-old from Kansas City who died in Morgan County on July 4, and a 31-year-old man from Lebanon, Missouri, who drowned on June 10. Together with Wednesday's death, the cases underscore how frequently drownings have struck the lake's coves, docks, and beaches this year, from families on pontoons to solo swimmers off docked boats.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol's public incident reports do not list the names of those involved or affected in this week's drowning, leaving the man's identity undisclosed beyond his hometown of St. Louis and the location of his death near the Gravois Arm.
