Man feared drowned in Utah Lake

"At this point we're not prepared to say this operation is a recovery, but it looks grim," said Utah County Sheriff's Sgt. Spencer Cannon.

The man was sailing with his parents on an 8-foot catamaran when he was last seen around 6:40 p.m., Cannon said. A nearby boater made the call to police a few minutes later.

Witnesses said the man jumped in the water to retrieve some equipment that had fallen from the boat. He did not return to the surface.

"There's no telling what happened," Cannon said. "It's the oddest thing. Most of the time when a body goes in it comes right back up."

The man may have inhaled some water or hurt himself on a piece of debris, he said.

"There are any number of reasons a person can disappear like that," Cannon said. "We just don't know."

Police scoured the area where the man was last seen with motorboats and wave runners, Cannon said. They discovered the sailboat equipment the man dove in after, but there was no sign of the man.

No search and rescue divers were sent in.

There were heavy winds over the lake at the time the man went missing, creating three-foot waves, Cannon said.

"Ordinarily that's not a bad thing," he said. "But because Utah Lake is so shallow, it's a little more dangerous."

Police have not determined if weather was a factor in the man's disappearance.

Searchers were called off the lake around 9:30 p.m. because it was getting dark. A Department of Public Safety helicopter used a flare and a spotlight to look over the surface of the lake.

Police are not releasing the man's name, pending family notification.

E-mail: estuart@desnews.com

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