FLAMING GORGE RESERVOIR, Wyo., June 25, 2018 (Gephardt Daily) — A North Ogden man who died after drowning in Flaming Gorge Reservoir Saturday has been identified by officials.
The deceased is Lance Heninger, 48, according to a news release from Sweetwater County Sheriff Mike Lowell and County Coroner Dale Majhanovich.
Heninger and two companions, Carson West, also of North Ogden, and Scott Gorder, of Ogden, were fishing from Gorder’s boat late Saturday afternoon about 3.5 miles southeast of Buckboard Marina when the incident occurred, the news release said.
The three men launched their boat from Buckboard early Saturday morning and were competing in the Ducks Unlimited Fishing Derby, officials said. They were last known to be fishing in the Big Bend Area.
“When the men had not returned to a residence in Manila as planned by late Saturday night, concerned family and friends checked the parking lot at Buckboard and there found their pickup and empty boat trailer,” the news release said.
“It was then, around midnight, that the Sheriff’s Office was notified.”
Members of the Sheriff’s Office Marine Unit left Buckboard aboard the patrol boat, which is kept docked there, and commenced a search.
At about 1:30 a.m., the deputies found West on the Gorge’s east shore. Fifteen minutes later, they located Gorder, still in the water. Both men were taken aboard the patrol boat and back across the lake to Buckboard and from there to Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County in Rock Springs, where they were treated and released. Gorder had been in the water about 10 hours, officials said.
Gorder and West told deputies that at around 4 p.m. on Saturday, while they were fishing, the wind picked up violently and the water became very choppy.
“One wave swamped the boat and the men began bailing, but another wave swamped the craft completely and all three went into the water,” the news release said.
Gorder and West were wearing life jackets, but Heninger was not, the news release said.
With Gorder and West handed over to ambulance personnel at Buckboard, the Marine Unit, joined by wardens of the Wyoming Game & Fish Department in their own boat, returned to its search and found Heninger’s body in a cove along the Gorge’s east bank at approximately 4 a.m. Sunday.
Lowell said the Sheriff’s Office’s investigation is continuing.
Gephardt Daily will have more on this developing story as information is made available.
Buckboard Marina is at the north end of Flaming Gorge Reservoir in the southwest part of Wyoming.
