Deputies with Lewis County and with the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office Dive Team conduct recovery operation today on Lake Mayfield. / Courtesy photo by Lewis County Sheriff’s Office
Updated at 4:09 p.m.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
The body of the 51-year-old Winlock man who vanished after jumping into the water from a bluff two weeks ago was pulled from Lake Mayfield today.
Dive team members from Thurston County assisted Lewis County sheriff’s deputies this morning, using a submersible camera device and found him between a cliff wall and a log, 65 feet below the surface, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.
He was about 25 feet from where he was last seen, according to Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown.
The victim’s name has not been released.
Brown said there was no sign of foul play, but an autopsy will be conducted later this week.
A short search was launched the afternoon of Sept. 2 near the boat launch at Ike Kinswa State Park after the man’s friend called to report they had jumped into the lake and the 51-year-old didn’t resurface.
The cliff was described as 30 feet above the water.
The 43-year-old Mossyrock area man told deputies he’d spent about an hour searching the lake bank for his friend and then went home.
Deputies began today’s operation at 9 o’clock this morning and located the body at 12:20 p.m., according to Brown. He was removed within the hour, she states in a news release.
Ike Kinswa is off state Route 122, which runs around the north side of the lake, in between Silver Creek and Mossyrock.
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For background, read “Man who jumped into Lake Mayfield yesterday presumed drowned” from Wednesday Sept. 3, 2014, here
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
Free air: Maybe he was killed somewhere else. Then smuggled down to Ike Kinswa in a logging truck (no one looks at those). He was then weighted down and thrown in but the devices to weigh him down were made of sat so that they would melt in the water leaving no trace.
Ha ha have I covered the conspiracy theory adequately? Like you said….this was just what it looked like at the start…a tragic accidental drowning.
Well on to the next conspiracy theory….
Republican Logger says:
Wednesday, September 3, 2014 at 8:15 pm
Sounds fishy, I’d bet they weren’t at Ike Kinswa at all. Homeboy went missing somewhere else and the Mossyrock man is the only one who knows…..
Well, another conspiracy theory shot to heck.
Condolences to the family for their loss. At least they have closure now.
Compliments to the Sheriff Office for bringing in a better equipped dive team with the camera. I’m sure that must have saved a lot of time over mucking around on the bottom of the lake, not to mention a much safer way to look for a body.