A Tennessee emergency room nurse is being hailed as a “guardian angel” after he died alongside his dog while trying to save a man who was stranded in Hurricane Helene’s floodwaters.
Boone McCrary, his girlfriend Santana Ray, and Moss the chocolate lab set out in McCrary’s fishing boat in search of David Boutin, whose Greeneville home was leveled by the rushing waters from the Nolichucky River on September 27, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
McCrary’s sister, Laura Harville, told the outlet that her brother was asking friends on Facebook if anyone needed help after the hurricane hit when he learned of Boutin’s dire situation.
About two hours into the attempted rescue on that Friday evening, the 32-year-old nurse’s boat became stuck in some debris, slammed into a bridge, and capsized.
While Ray was able to grab onto a branch and be rescued hours later, McCrary and Moss were nowhere in sight.
“I got the first phone call at 8:56 p.m. and I was a nervous wreck,” Harville said, explaining how she went to the bridge and started searching the banks.
She then pulled together “hundreds” of volunteers for a search party, using technology like drones and thermal cameras along with hunting dogs to find any sign of her brother.
A drone operator spotted the damaged fishing boat on Sunday, and Moss’s body was found nearby — without McCrary.
On Tuesday, four days after the nurse went missing, Harville said the search party “noticed vultures flying” around 21 river miles away from the bridge where McCrary was separated from his girlfriend.
His body had been swept underneath two more bridges, a highway, and over the Nolichucky Dam, the grieving sister said.
McCrary’s final TikTok video posted earlier this summer eerily captured his love of the water and adventurous personality:
@boonemccrary
“Some people have asked if I had a ‘death wish.’ The truth is that I have a ‘life wish,'” the nurse captioned the clip of him boating through muddy water. “I have a need for feeling the life running through my veins.”
“One thing about me, I may be ‘crazy,’ Perhaps a little reckless at times, but when the time comes to put me in the ground, you can say I lived it all the way.”
According to Harville, her brother “was adamant about living life to the fullest and making sure along the way that you didn’t forget your fellow man or woman and that you helped each other.”
Boutin did not learn of McCrary’s fate until the day after he was eventually rescued by others.
“I’ve never had anyone risk their life for me,” he told the AP. “From what I hear that was the way he always been. He’s my guardian angel, that’s for sure.”
“When the news hit, I didn’t know how to take it,” he added. “I wish I could thank him for giving his life for me.”
Boutin’s dog, Buddy, is also presumed to be a victim of Helene as he has not been found over a week later.
The 46-year-old told the outlet how the raging waters took “my best friend, all I have,” from his arms as his house was destroyed.
Tributes for McCrary have poured out on social media, with Harville writing on Facebook, “He’ll forever be on the water as he wanted to be”:
A hunting friend of McCrary’s, Brett Hall, recounted how he saw his pal’s initial post saying his boat was “hooked up and ready to roll” to help those in need:
“A few hours later, another hunting buddy, James Ferguson Jr. posted asking if anyone had heard which stretch of river our friend was on, and I knew it was not good,” Hall wrote.
“Boone McCrary truly had a heart of service to others. Boone did not owe one person down there in eastern Tennessee a thing, but he decided to put aside his own needs and help anyway,” the friend continued, before adding that “Boone made the ultimate sacrifice when his boat capsized while doing what he did best: helping others.”
As an employee of Greenville Community Hospital, McCrary was also commemorated by the Tennessee-based Ballad Health hospital chain:
“The Ballad Health team will remember Boone as the ultimate caregiver who was kind and compassionate with a larger-than-life personality,” the healthcare company said. “The past few days, we have heard our team share stories of how he sang to team members and patients to lighten the mood and that he loved music and his beloved chocolate lab, Moss, who was always with him.”
Hurricane Helene’s death toll has risen to at least 227 as search-and-rescue and body recovery efforts continue, according to the most recent update from the AP.