Investigators are using a robotic camera Monday afternoon to scour the floor of Pyramid Lake, after finding evidence there might be a body there.
Their search began Monday morning after a witness reported a man, who has yet to be found, fell out of his boat.
A search and rescue team from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department dispatched to Pyramid Lake after a report of a possible drowning Monday morning. Initial reports indicated a lake floor-scanning devices had picked up on something that could be a body, but that they would still need more time to confirm whether their reading is correct. Sheriff’s officials did not identify the man who was reported missing.
The report of a man going over the side of his boat was made by a pedestrian who successfully flagged down a deputy on the 43100 block of Pyramid Lake Road in Gorman at approximately 10:50 a.m., according to Deputy Trina Schrader of the Sheriff’s Information Bureau.
As of 4:45 p.m. Monday, no body had been pulled out of the water, but deputies were searching the area for the missing person.
“There is a possible drowning and we’re investigating,” said Schrader at the time of the initial report. “The person possibly went overboard on a pontoon boat.”
It remained unknown as of 1:45 p.m. how the reported victim, described only as a 23-year-old Hispanic man, fell into the water and what had transpired on the boat before his disappearance, according to Deputy Eva Jimenez, another spokeswoman for SIB.
“It’s unknown if … he jumped out of the boat or he fell … we don’t know that just that,” said Jimenez at 1:45 p.m. on Monday. “But they are still currently searching.”
For the search effort, search and rescue teams are using a device that is similar to sonar technology and can help investigators see living things along the lake’s bottom.
“It detects any kind of air that might be down there, whether it be a fish or a human being,” said Jimenez.
Late Monday afternoon, Jimenez was informed by officials at the scene that the technology had yielded a possible “hit,” but a robot with a camera attached to it still needed to be sent down to confirm.
If there is a body down there, then divers will be sent in to retrieve it, Jimenez said.
Los Angeles County Fire Department personnel received the call at 10:57 a.m. and said the call was a “lake water rescue.”
“Two or three sheriff’s divers are in the water looking for a possible adult,” said Franklin Lopez, a spokesman for the Fire Department, at the time of the incident.
No victim had yet been found and no further updates on the status of the search were available as of the publication of this article, according to officials.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
