Dawson Smith is mourning the death of his mother, 51-year-old Regina Smith, whose body was discovered near Noccalula Falls in the Black Creek gorge Tuesday morning. After Regina went missing on Sunday evening, search and rescue personnel discovered her body 200 feet from the gorge’s mouth, according to Gadsden Fire Chief Vance Brown.
“My mother spent her entire life in water. My mother purchased a lakefront home as soon as she learned she could. When we went over to see her, we usually didn’t find her inside. Dawson added, “If we went out to the lake, we’d find her.”
Regina lived in Lincoln, on Logan Martin Lake. She liked the ocean, waterfalls, and rapids.
“Just the sound and peace for her was a big deal,” he told me. “[Noccalula Falls] is somewhere she adores. We come here several times a year. There are family photos from when I was ten years old, as well as one from Mother’s Day last year. “Me and her sitting beneath the waterfall.”
Dawson claimed his mother was at ease around Noccalula Falls. “I would probably say too comfortable,” he added.
Dawson was in Oklahoma on Sunday, May 25, when his family made another trip to the Falls.
His younger brother was with his mother.
“They were swimming in the pool.” My brother begged, ‘Come back, Mom. You’re floating too far away. She answered, ‘No, I’m fine.’ She was simply floating down the river. We perform a lot of lazy river activities in Pell City. I believe my mother may have misread the situation. Dawson stated that when she was flying away and out of sight, the last thing she said was, ‘This is the finest day of my life,'”
Shortly after, 911 was phoned to report a missing woman, and the hunt for Regina began.
“When my brother first told me, he had left the trail. It was dark and rainy. My first reaction was that my mother was looking for a way out, and she would finally find one,” Dawson said. “I had held out hope. “I prayed because it was all I could do out there.”
He took the first aircraft back to Alabama and arrived in Gadsden.
“I wanted to come find my mother.” “I wanted to come save my mother,” Dawson explained.
He highlighted that scores of family members, friends, and first responders helped with the search on Monday. However, as the day progressed, he realized the chances of finding his mother alive were decreasing.
“When we never found anything, and I saw the state of the rapids, the thermal drones didn’t pick anything up, and the scent dogs kind of stopped in the area she was last scene, in my mind, I kind of understood that my mom was going to turn up eventually and it would either have to do with the water getting so high that she turned up or it getting shallow again so that we could find her,” Dawson told me.
Tuesday was surprising.
“It’s shocking not to be able to talk to your mother again. Not being able to eat out with her. We bought a house last year, so I contacted my mother. She accompanied us as we toured each house. “So, shocking in that sense,” Dawson explained.
Dawson also has a younger sister. Dawson stated that his brother was not speaking much, and that his sister had remained at the Falls since her mother disappeared. Both continued to deal with the loss.
Dawson was grateful that his mother’s remains was recovered within a few days rather than the family waiting for closure.
Dawson and Regina had a strong bond.
“I was born on my mother’s birthday. She claims I am the nicest gift she has ever received. We would celebrate our birthday at the beach. We enjoyed the sounds of the sea and the ocean. We always had a beachside condo. We would open the door to the small patio area. My mother would sleep in a zero-gravity recliner outside on the balcony simply to hear the waves. I would sleep on the closest couch to the door I could find. We’d simply listen to the surf and not even use the beds in the condo we were staying in because we wanted to hear the waves,” he explained.
Dawson went on to talk about his mother’s love of water and her never-ending smile.
“My mother was delighted here. “I love her,” he said.
Regina’s body was discovered shortly after 11 a.m. by staff checking the area on foot. A drone corroborated the sighting reported by the ground team. A high-angle rope recovery was performed.
It took teams until just before 2 p.m. to get the body to the top of the gorge. Chief Brown described the situation in the area as “treacherous.”
He urged people to avoid the Black Creek gorge, stressing the presence of deadly rapids, steep boulders, and submerged caverns.
“We have main walking routes that run about four miles from here behind the wedding chapel and all the way down to Station 4 in Alabama City. We do have some walking trails that branch off of that. It’s a basic region. People go out on those trails. We advise them to stay away from that. “It is definitely a place no one should go,” Brown remarked. “Come to the falls. Stay out of the gorge.
According to Gadsden Mayor Craig Ford, the area surrounding the Falls is marked with signs, fencing, and cameras.
Due to inclement weather, workers conducted extensive searches from Sunday night to Tuesday morning. Because of the dangers posed by the rapids, no dive team was deployed.
“We made concerted effort to do a ground and pound, is what we would call it,” Vance told me. “We had three drones in the air throughout this entire process.”
Rescue crews from Etowah, Cherokee, Dekalb, St. Clair, and Jefferson counties helped with the search.
Reference: Mother’s body found near Alabama waterfall after swimming accident
