[07/18/01] The body of the Warren County woman who drowned while swimming in the Yazoo Diversion Canal Monday afternoon was recovered nearly 24 hours later.

Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace said the body of Doris White Evans, 42, was spotted at about 3 p.m. as authorities dragged the 30-foot-deep spot about 100 yards from where she had last been seen swimming at about 4 the afternoon before.

Rescue boats from the Warren County Sheriff’s Department and the Department of Fish and Wildlife were in the water when Evans’ body was found, Pace said.

An autopsy was to be performed at Mississippi Mortuary Services in Rankin County Wednesday night.

Evans and her husband, Mike Evans, had put their boat in at City Front at 1 p.m. Monday. They rode with friends around the canal before stopping to swim in a chute of water, northwest of Lake Centennial, near the Vicksburg harbor.

Riding with the Evanses were friends Tammy Wallace, her 9-year-old daughter, Brittany, and Diane Stokes, and her 9-year-old daughter, April.

Authorities with the Vicksburg Fire Department, the sheriff’s office and Fish and Wildlife scanned the river banks and dragged the canal bottom before the search was called off about 9 p.m. Monday. It resumed at 7 a.m. Tuesday.

Evans had four children, ages 16 to 24, who live in Houston and near New Orleans.