Man arrested after fatal shooting at Clifty Falls State Park
MADISON, Ind. (WISH) — A Georgia man has been arrested in connection to the fatal shooting of another Georgia man on Wednesday at Clifty Falls State Park in southern Indiana.
Officer Josh Thomas with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources’ law enforcement division said in a news release issued Thursday afternoon that the shooting happened shortly before 2:50 p.m. Wednesday at the north gate of the state park.
Authorities from multiple agencies arrived to find Joseph Renee Lane dead with a gunshot wound to the chest near the parking lot at the north gate. The 47-year-old is from Carrollton, Georgia.
John Dean McElwaney, 33, of Tallapoosa, Georgia, was booked into the Jefferson County jail on a preliminary charge of voluntary manslaughter.
Online court records on Thursday afternoon did not show a case with formal charges for McElwaney.
The park’s gate was closed Wednesday following the shooting.
Clifty Falls State Park sits on over 14,000 acres located about a hour’s drive northeast of downtown Louisville, Kentucky. The facility opened in 1920 as Indiana’s third state park. The park was created to preserve the waterfalls of Clifty Creek and to honor people who died in World War I. The gate houses to the parks were built as part of the U.S. Civilian Conservation Corps as a way to employ people following the Great Depression.