Colorado Parks and Wildlife locates body of presumed drowning victim at Lake Pueblo
PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) – Colorado Parks and Wildlife has confirmed that early Friday morning, they located the body of a person that presumably drowned at Lake Pueblo. Crews responded to the initial report on Thursday afternoon. The victim has not been publicly identified, but CPW confirmed it was an adult male victim.
The coroner will publicly release the cause of death following an autopsy.
According to a spokesperson for CPW, park boat patrol teams were on scene the evening of June 19, conducting a grid search with sonar. The department's Marine Evidence Recovery Team was also on scene with additional sonar and an underwater drone.
"We will continue an active search as long as it takes," the spokesperson told KRDO13 while they were still searching.
Just before 10 p.m., the agency said its divers had stopped searching for safety reasons, as it had gotten too dark. CPW staff remained on scene, however, and sonar operations continued.
KRDO13 spoke with a man on the beach who said he'd been there that evening fishing with his family.
"We just saw floaties rolling around. We didn't think anything of it. And someone started picking it up, and we just started hearing sirens, and we just kept seeing stuff coming up, and one of the cops investigated the floatie over there," explained witness Mac Marez.
He said he saw the floatie going toward the dam, away from the beach. Marez also said he hopes that the family of the person who's suspected of drowning is ok.
Since mid-May, there have been three reported drownings at Lake Pueblo State Park.
On May 14, 53-year-old Manuel DeJesus Villanueva Miranda died after going into the lake to help his two children. Just two weeks later, on May 30, Derrick Lee Vigil, 28, drowned when a fishing boat that he was on capsized.
Just earlier this month, on June 7, 44-year-old Daniel Strawn was found unconscious after jumping into the lake without a life jacket. Despite CPR efforts, he was later pronounced dead.
This is a developing story and will be updated as we learn more.
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