Sarah Bates Independent-Mail Rescue workers prepare to head out on boats to look for 20-year-old Christopher Karpik, who fell off a boat Saturday on Lake Hartwell near Big Water Marina and is presumed dead.

Divers searching for body of Clemson student

By Emily Huigens
Independent-Mail
July 24, 2004

STARR — Divers were looking for the body of a 20-year-old Clemson University student Saturday night after he fell off his boat and disappeared in the water near the Big Water Marina in Starr.

Christopher Karpik was boating with two other young men, followed by his father in a second boat, when he fell off the bow and was hit by the speedboat he was riding in, Anderson County Deputy Coroner Charlie Boseman said.

Mr. Karpik was a T.L. Hanna graduate and was the son of Anderson anesthesiologist William Karpik.

Dr. Karpik declined to speak with reporters Saturday at the marina as he awaited word from searchers.

Mr. Boseman said divers from Hartwell and several groups from Anderson County were working to find the body using underwater cameras, but that they would be forced to stop at dark and return in the morning.

"That’s some pretty deep water out there, plus you’ve got the undercurrent," he said.

He said two saw Mr. Karpik go overboard after a bag that fell off the boat.

Patrick Mille, 20, a biology major at the University of South Carolina, was driving the boat, and Stephen Barr, 20, a chemistry major at USC, was a passenger, Mr. Boseman said.

Law enforcement officers talked to the two friends and to family, but were treating the drowning as accidental, Mr. Boseman said.

Chris Karpik’s personal Web site at Clemson showed an obvious love for the outdoors and for his university.

In several pictures, he is shown wearing orange T-shirts, and in others he is tailgating with friends and family.

The site included a list of his favorite bands along with photos of Ford trucks, a dalmatian puppy, a Waverunner and the yellow Malibu Sunsetter boat he was riding in Saturday.

Jane Allen, who taught Mr. Karpik at T.L. Hanna, said he was a smart, likable young man with an interest in science.

In 2001, he was a Regional Science Fair winner, and went to California for the national competition as an observer.

"It wasn’t two weeks ago I wondered with another co-teacher how he was doing," Mrs. Allen said. "He was probably on the road to a very successful career."

Emily Huigens can be reached at (800) 859-6397, Ext. 326 or by e-mail at huigensee@IndependentMail.com.