Authorities recovered the body of a Bellevue man who drowned in Lake Washington Wednesday while trying to rescue his son who had fallen off a boat.
Mercer Island police said the body was found Thursday around 5:30 p.m., resting in 100 feet of water.
Bellevue Police and Mercer Island Marine Patrol had used bottom-searching technology and video surveillance from homes in the area to pinpoint the search area Thursday after recovery efforts Wednesday were unsuccessful.
Emergency responders from Bellevue and the Mercer Island Marine Patrol discovered the man was missing Wednesday when responding to reports of a person in the water near Meydenbauer Bay at around 7 p.m., according to Mercer Island police.
The man had rented a motorboat with two adult friends and his two young kids, ages 6 and 4, police said in a press release Thursday.
He dove into the water without a life jacket when his son, who was wearing a life jacket, fell into the water, the release states. A group from the local sailing club managed to pull the child from the water and tried to rescue the father, but he did not resurface.
Dive rescue teams from the Mercer Island Police and Fire Department and aircraft units from the U.S. Coast Guard searched for the man Wednesday but were not successful, due to the large area and depth of the water. The rented motorboat was towed to the Mercer Island Police Department dock pending investigation.
