Recovery effort to find man who went missing at Cherry Creek State Park
AURORA, Colo. (KRDO) -- Search teams conducted a recovery operation Monday to find the body of a man who went missing at Cherry Creek State Park over the weekend.
According to Colorado Parks and Wildlife, the Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s Marine Evidence Recovery Team was called out Saturday to search for a 29-year-old man. CPW says the man was being pulled by a boat on a tube when he became separated from the tub and went missing in the water at 6:45 p.m.
CPW says the victim was not wearing a life jacket.
Park Rangers and South Metro Fire Rescue used sonar to search the area. However, after 90 minutes, first responders weren't able to find him.
That's when the rescue effort turned into a recovery mission and was turned over to CPW's MERT program.
According to CPW, the MERT Team used underwater remote-operated vehicles to search the reservoir until 4 p.m. but was unsuccessful.
South Metro resumed the search at sunrise Sunday.
Monday at 2:30 p.m., CPW said there were four vessels on the reservoir conducting the recovery operation, saying crews are "working tirelessly to recover the victim."
There have been four vessels on the reservoir at Cherry Creek State Park today conducting the recovery operation. The search for the missing person in the water continues, and crews are working tirelessly to recover the victim.https://t.co/alqD703kkq pic.twitter.com/c8eOzEvRg3
— CPW NE Region (@CPW_NE) May 9, 2022
According to CPW, this drowning comes nearly one year to the day when a kayaker drowned near the East Shades parking area. On May 2, 2021, CPW said the kayaker died after being flipped over in the water.
CPW said that drowning was classified as a survivable accident if the victim had been wearing a personal floating device.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife says this is the second drowning in Colorado so far in 2022. In 2021, there were 22 total drownings in Colorado. 2020 had the highest number of drownings on record in the state with 34 deaths.
