Joe Lara, star of the ’90s television series Tarzan: The Epic Adventures, and his wife Gwen Shamblin Lara, a diet guru and founder of the Remnant Fellowship Church, were killed in a plane crash along with five other people.
A small Cessna C501 jet carrying the group crashed into Percy Priest Lake near Smyrna, Tenn., after taking off from Smyrna Rutherford County Airport at about 11 a.m. on Saturday, May 29, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement to The New York Times. The plane was headed to Palm Beach International Airport in Florida, the organization said.
After the crash, local rescue crews rushed to the scene to try to find survivors, to no avail. They remained there as of Sunday, May 30, and have recovered several components of the aircraft as well as human remains, according to a statement from the Rutherford County Government in Tennessee, posted on Facebook. Everyone aboard the plane was presumed dead, Rutherford County Fire Rescue said.
Joe, 58, and Gwen, 66, are survived by her two adult children from Gwen’s first marriage, Elizabeth Hannah, who lost her husband Brandon Hannah in the crash, and Michael Shamblin, as well as a daughter from Joe’s previous relationship, plus several grandchildren.