LAKE WHITNEY (May 14, 2009)--A call for help from some friends resulted in the accidental drowning of a China Spring man Wednesday night.

Michael Ray Arnold, 49, received a call for help from some friends who were stranded in their boat on Lake Whitney.

Arnold drove to Loafers Bend Park, near the Whitney Dam, and as he was launching his boat at about 9:30 p.m., the boat got away from him.

"It was late and it was dark. Even though he was an experienced fisherman and boater, it appears he tried to catch the boat and wasn't able to. It just got away from him," said Hill County Precinct 4 Justice of the Peace Martis Ward.

Ward said he believes the boat ended up about 30 yards from the trailer at the launch site.

Ward was called to the scene after divers from the Lake Whitney Dive Team recovered Arnold's body at about 1:54 a.m. Thursday.

Ward pronounced Arnold dead at the scene at 2:18 a.m. Thursday and ordered his body sent to the Southwest Institute of Forensic Science, at Parkland Hospital, in Dallas, for autopsy.

"There was no sign of foul play," Ward said.

"I don't think he ever actually got into the boat because his life preserver was still on the seat, attached to a kill switch."

Texas Parks and Wildlife Game Warden Hammond used a sonar device to find Arnold's body, which was submerged in 7.3 feet of water just off the boat ramp.

The Hill County Sheriff's Department first responded to a call of a missing boater at 9:30 p.m. Wednesday.

The stranded boaters eventually reached shore when their boat drifted into King's Creek Lodge Marina on the Bosque County side of the lake.

Judge Ward said Arnold was known to be an avid fisherman and boater.

Arnold owned Outlaw Tools, a retail tool supplier, in China Spring.