Tuesday, May 12, 2026

Search crews recover body of missing canoer in James City County

The body of a 22-year-old man who went missing after a canoe he was in overturned Sunday in James City County was recovered Tuesday afternoon.

James City County Police said the body of Tionni G. Johnson, of Lanexa, was found at around 3:10 p.m. approximately 100 feet offshore and in water 26 feet deep.

It was in the area of Little Creek Reservoir where the canoe overturned Sunday afternoon.

Three men were in the canoe fishing when it overturned, James County Police said.

A 19-year-old man able to swim to shore and was taken to Sentara Williamsburg Regional Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries. A second man was also able to swim to shore and was uninjured.

None of the three men were wearing life vests.

A search immediately was conducted with the assistance from York-Poquoson Sheriff’s Office, the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, VCU LifeEvac and Newport News Waterworks.

It was suspended Sunday night. It was also called off Monday inclement weather.

RELATED STORY: Man missing after canoe overturns in James City County

John Mangalonzo
John Mangalonzohttps://wydaily.com
John Mangalonzo ([email protected]) is the managing editor of Local Voice Media’s Virginia papers – WYDaily (Williamsburg), Southside Daily (Virginia Beach) and HNNDaily (Hampton-Newport News). Before coming to Local Voice, John was the senior content editor of The Bellingham Herald, a McClatchy newspaper in Washington state. Previously, he served as city editor/content strategist for USA Today Network newsrooms in St. George and Cedar City, Utah. John started his professional journalism career shortly after graduating from Lyceum of The Philippines University in 1990. As a rookie reporter for a national newspaper in Manila that year, John was assigned to cover four of the most dangerous cities in Metro Manila. Later that year, John was transferred to cover the Philippine National Police and Armed Forces of the Philippines. He spent the latter part of 1990 to early 1992 embedded with troopers in the southern Philippines as they fought with communist rebels and Muslim extremists. His U.S. journalism career includes reporting and editing stints for newspapers and other media outlets in New York City, California, Texas, Iowa, Utah, Colorado and Washington state.

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