Jaden Phillips, at age 18, pictured after a day spent duck hunting with a friend. "Duck hunting, to him, was his Christmas morning," said his mother, Sabria Phillips.

Sabria Phillips holds a photo of her son, Jaden, and a lapel pin with his image at the S.C. Statehouse on Wednesday, Feb. 5.

Jaden Phillips sustained fatal head injuries after the boat he was riding in on May 16, 2020, hit this tree on the Congaree River. The state Department of Natural Resources photographed the tree more than a week later, following several days of rain that greatly raised river levels.

The emergency dispatch for Calhoun County, which lies 500 feet from the boat ramp, picked up the call before transferring it to Richland County. Other calls also got volleyed to Lexington and Orangeburg counties and the Department of Natural Resources — but the agency did not begin investigating until a week after the incident.