Two bodies discovered in Lake Mead
Two bodies were found Saturday in Lake Mead.
About 7:30 a.m. a boater saw a man waving and yelling for help from one of the Boulder Basin islands on the Nevada side of the lake. When the boater stopped, the man, a Henderson resident, told him that he spent the night stranded on the island.
He said he and a friend had crashed their 35-foot cabin cruiser into the shore of the island about 7:30 p.m. Friday and his friend was still missing, said Roxanne Dey, spokeswoman for the Lake Mead National Recreation area.
"Anytime someone can stay on the shoreline or on the island until help arrives, it's better," she said. "At least he was on land and wasn't treading water all night."
A Las Vegas police search and rescue team looked for the missing man, who also is believed to be from Henderson. Divers found his body underneath the boat in about 20 to 40 feet of water, Dey said.
It was unclear how the man died or how his friend got to safety on the island, Dey said. The survivor was taken to the hospital, but park officials were unaware of his condition Saturday evening.
About noon Saturday, a boater near Sentinel Island, found a body of a man floating on the lake. Park rangers believe the dead man is 39-year-old Erus O'Connor Matanguihan of North Las Vegas.
On Sept. 19, witnesses saw Matanguihan fall into the water near the Boulder Islands but never saw him come up. Winds on the lake were gusting up to 40 mph at the time, and Matanguihan was not wearing a flotation vest.
A few hours after he disappeared, park rangers found his windsurfer between Sentinel and Saddle Islands. After searching for Matanguihan for two days, rangers presumed he had drowned.
Positive identification of the two bodies recovered Saturday is expected to come from the Clark County coroner's office this week.
Both incidents remain under investigation by the National Park Service, Dey said.
The two men bring to 20 the number of deaths at Lake Mead National Recreation Area this year compared with 23 for the same period last year. The total for 2006 was 27.
