Dateline: July 10, 2003

Holiday tragedy claims 4-year-old's life

By Roger Estlack, Clarendon Enterprise

An Amarillo girl’s life was cut short last Friday, July 4, when she drowned at Lake Greenbelt.

Sheriff Butch Blackburn said his office received a call at 12:34 p.m. from the Lake Patrol that 4-year-old Brooklyn Allen was missing from where her family was camping on the north side of the dam.

Emergency personnel responded from the Donley County Sheriff’s Office, the Department of Public Safety, the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, Associated Ambulance Authority, and the Clarendon Volunteer Fire Department (CFVD) Rescue Team.

A foot search of the area was conducted, and the girl’s arm floaties and flotation device similar to an inner tube were found washed up on the shore.

Members of the CFVD Dive Team recovered the body of the girl at 1:40 p.m. She was transported to Northwest Texas Hospital in Amarillo where she was pronounced dead at 2:43.

Preliminary results of an autopsy conducted Saturday listed drowning as the cause of death.

It is believed the girl waded into the lake where the bottom falls off sharply.

“You go from a depth of two feet to twelve feet in very short distance,” Blackburn said.

Allen had come to the lake with her mother and her mother’s boyfriend, another couple, and a few other children.

No charges have been filed following the accident, but an investigation is ongoing pending final autopsy results.