WILLARD BAY, Box Elder County, Utah, Aug. 4, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — Search and rescue crews, including divers, are on scene at Willard Bay after a man went missing in the water Saturday night.
It was after 8 p.m. when the man, believed to be about 50, and his son and a female were on a boat in the South Marina area, and the two males decided to get into the water. They did not put on the life jackets they had brought, Chief Eric Stucki, Utah State Parks, told Gephardt Daily.
“The storm was setting in, and the winds pushed the man away from the boat,” Stucki said. “The son was able to make it back to the boat, but the father was not.”
The son tried to get the boat to his father.
“I know he was able to try to get a life jacket to his father, but the wind and the storm had settled in and he just wasn’t able to get there in time.”
Stucki said he did not know the age of the son or the relationship of the female to the others in the small boat.
The emergency call came to dispatch at 8:55 p.m. regarding the man who went into the water and had not resurfaced. Search and Rescue from Box Elder and Weber counties responded to the scene, as did a Utah Highway Patrol helicopter for an aerial search. The Department of Public Safety dive team also responded, as did agents from Utah State Parks.
“They did search throughout the night, and then did take a little couple-hour break after 3 a.m. and resumed again about 6,” Stucki said.
The ongoing effort is a search and rescue operation, he said. If a body is located, it will transition to a recovery operation. As of 11 a.m. Sunday, no body had been found.
The son, whose age Stucki said he did not know, is physically unhurt, as is the female, who remained in the boat.
Gephardt Daily will have updated information as the search effort continues.
