ROME, Ga. (ABP) — When a shrimp boat accidentally snagged the wreckage of a submerged plane off the Florida coast early Jan. 2, a long, sad wait came to an end for a Baptist family in Rome, Ga.
The bodies of Gary Tillman, 47, and his daughter Hannah, 16, were found in the wreckage. They had been missing and presumed dead since Dec. 18, when Tillman's private plane crashed into the Atlantic about a mile east of Vilano Beach.
Two teenage friends of Hannah — both 16 — also were on the plane. Rachel Hostetler was immediately rescued, plucked from the ocean by St. Johns County Marine Rescue. Anna Kipp was pulled from the water but declared dead on arrival at Flagler Hospital in St. Augustine.
The four were on their way to the Bahamas for a vacation.
Gary Tillman is survived by his wife, Denise, and two other daughters, Rachel and Bonnie Grace. He was a deacon at First Baptist Church of Rome. Hannah was active in the student ministry.
The tragedy has hit the congregation very hard, friends said.
“They were salt-of-the-earth-people, the kind you build a church on,” said longtime family friend Bill Davies, minister of education and administration at the church in northwest Georgia.
Gary Tillman's parents, Earl and Carolyn Tillman, have been strong leaders in the church since they moved their family to Rome in the 1970s, Davies told Baptists Today. “The Tillmans got here when we did about 30 years ago. We raised our kids together.”
Gary's sister, Tamara Tillman, is a former missionary now serving as associate coordinator in the global missions office of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in Atlanta.
The four left Rome Dec. 17 aboard Tillman's 1952 Cessna 195. They stopped overnight in Jacksonville, Fla., then left Sunday afternoon for a planned stop in Fort Pierce before crossing to the Bahamas. About 15 minutes after takeoff from Jacksonville, Gary Tillman sent out a distress message indicating he had a “rough-running engine” and was unable to maintain altitude, air traffic controllers said.
Rescuers arrived on the scene within half an hour and found the two girls. The search for the others and the plane continued for more than a day before being called off.
Fifteen days after the crash, the shrimp boat Tremallee out of nearby Fernandina Beach was trolling near Vilano Beach when it snagged something in the water which spun the boat around. Captain Mallory Wilder told reporters he and a co-worker saw a plane's nosecone and a girl's body in the net. Suspecting they had found the missing Cessna, Wilder radioed rescuers, who located the rest of the wreckage in the 40-foot-deep water.
The local medical examiner confirmed the Tillmans' identities Jan. 3 and speculated the pair were “rendered unconscious upon impact and suffered saltwater drowning.”
Earl and Carolyn Tillman, Gary Tillman's parents, who have been in St. Augustine since soon after the crash, thanked rescue workers and others across the country. “We've been overwhelmed by the love and caring and compassion of people who didn't even know us,” Carolyn Tillman said. “People have called to offer their love and share our grief with us, and we're grateful.”
Earl Tillman said he was “elated” that the bodies were found so the family can finally have some closure. Himself a pilot, he said he had just bought a small airplane to teach Hannah how to fly.
Rome mayor Ronnie Wallace, a longtime friend of Gary Tillman, said both the family and the Rome community needed “to find Gary and Hannah and bring them home.”
“Now that that process is concluded, the healing can begin,” he told the Rome News-Tribune.
Friend and classmate Julia Douglas said Hannah will be dearly missed. “She was a lot of fun, really friendly,” she told the Rome newspaper. “She had friends everywhere.”
Rachel Hostetler, the lone survivor, and her family issued a statement Jan. 2 expressing “our deepest sympathies for the Tillman and Kipp families,” adding, “It is certainly the answer to the prayers of our family and our community that Gary and Hannah have been found.”
A memorial service for the Tillmans was scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 7, at First Baptist of Rome.
A memorial service for Anna Kipp was held Dec. 22 at Morris Chapel in Darlington, Ga.
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— Photo available