Search continues for missing boater at Strawberry Reservoir

STRAWBERRY RESERVOIR — After nearly 15 hours spent in the wind and rain searching for the body of a missing boater, search and rescue teams had to call it a night.

Family members were gathered Tuesday along the shores of Strawberry Reservoir as more than 40 searchers from the Wasatch and Summit county sheriff's offices and a dive team from the Utah Department of Public Safety looked for Christian Tyler Barton, 26, of West Valley City.

Three men were in a rented pontoon boat Monday when Barton, who was at the front of the boat, fell out. The driver turned off the motor and tried to throw a life jacket to Barton but did not get it close enough, said Wasatch County Sheriff's Chief Deputy Jared Rigby.

The driver of the boat, Jeff Maroney, 28, of Sandy, jumped in after Barton but could not reach him. The other passenger, Jeff Etherington, 36, of Lehi, jumped in after Maroney, Rigby said. Both men were eventually picked up by other boaters.

Barton fell into the lake "a fair distance out" from shore, Rigby said, on the north side of the reservoir near the Soldier Creek boat dock. Alcohol was believed to be involved in the incident, he said.

Rigby said water temperatures at the reservoir, which average 35 to 40 degrees, make it difficult to stay afloat.

"It's a matter of minutes if you don't have a life jacket," he said.

Crews searched the reservoir until midnight Monday and resumed at 6 a.m. Tuesday. Searchers were using sonar equipment on their boats and underwater cameras, and a search also was conducted from the air using the DPS helicopter.

Rigby said part of the area crews are searching is 200 feet in depth and one of the sonars only catches anything 80 feet under water.

Rescue teams finally called off the search around 9 p.m. Tuesday, when it became too dark to continue.

Strawberry Reservoir is a deep and notoriously cold lake subject to frequent choppy water due to wind.

In 2006, the same high-tech sonar equipment helped rescue crews recover the bodies of an Orem couple whose boat capsized during a storm. During the search for Steven and Catheryn Roundy, the bodies of three other people were also recovered. Two of the bodies were Utah County men who disappeared during a boating accident in 1995. The body of a third boater with that group still remains missing. The body of a swimmer who disappeared in 2001 was also found during the same search in 2006.

Rigby warns that even the most experienced swimmers need to wear life jackets while on a boat and be careful.

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