Man feared drowned at Strawberry Reservoir

HEBER — After several hours of searching Strawberry Reservoir for a missing man on Memorial Day, Wasatch County police turned up empty-handed.

Officers were called to the scene about 8 p.m. when they received several calls from other boaters returning to the dock for the night. When the police arrived, they learned that one man had fallen into the cold water from a boat. His two companions first tried to rescue the man by throwing life-savers into the reservoir but then jumped in after him, said Wasatch County Sheriff's Chief Deputy Jared Rigby.

The two men were wearing life jackets and were eventually pulled from the water by passing boaters who were on their way into the dock. One of the men was sent to a local hospital in an ambulance and the other was sent by medical helicopter to Salt Lake City. Both were suffering from hypothermia. All three of the men were in their twenties or thirties, Rigby said.

County search and rescue teams were unable to locate the third man but continued looking into the night.

"There's still a chance. We're not ready to declare this a recovery mission," Rigby said late Monday night. "We still hope that he's alive and everything's well."

The shore was visible from the boat when the first man fell in, Rigby added. In fact, one of the would-be rescuers started swimming for the beach rather than back to the boat because of the land's proximity.

— Rebecca Palmer