PROVO CANYON, Utah, July 3, 2018 (Gephardt Daily) — The Fourth of July holiday got off to a deadly start after a man’s body was pulled from the Provo River in Wasatch County on Tuesday afternoon.
Search and rescue teams were called to the scene about 4:34 p.m. with reports of a kayaker going into the water and then failing to resurface.
Officers from Wasatch County Fire, North Fork Fire, Utah Division of Natural Resources and the Wasatch County Sheriff’s Office responded to an area near mile marker 16, but rescue efforts were short-lived.
Not long after help arrived, a body was pulled from the river next to a nearby railroad bridge.
The victim has been tentatively identified as a man from Florida who was vacationing while visiting family members living in the area.
Investigators are unsure how the man ended up in the 45-degree water but say he was wearing a life vest at the time of the accident.
The victim’s body was turned over to the State Medical Examiner’s Office and was taken to Salt Lake City, where the coroner will try to determine the cause of death.
Gephardt Daily will update the story as more information is made available.
