Boater missing since August found 1,500 feet beneath Lake Tahoe, police say

A 29-year-old boater who vanished in August on Lake Tahoe has been found 1,500 feet underwater, California police say.

After Ryan Normoyle’s rented ski boat washed ashore on the Nevada side of the lake Aug. 10, authorities discovered he had recorded himself jumping into the water from the vessel earlier that day, according to a South Lake Tahoe news release.

The boat, still in gear, slowly pulled away from Normoyle, who could not swim fast enough to catch up to it, the release says. He drowned.

Authorities searched for Normoyle using GPS data from his phone but were unable to find his body, even with help from UC Davis researchers who analyzed currents in the lake, police say.

His family reached out to Bruce’s Legacy — “a nonprofit organization that specializes in underwater body recovery” — and a new search also involving police, sheriff’s deputies and firefighters found Normoyle’s body Thursday, the release says.

His body was found 1,565 feet underwater near the GPS coordinates recorded on his phone, officials say. Authorities recovered Normoyle’s body Saturday.

It’s the deepest body recovery recorded in the United States and Canada, according to Keith Cormican, founder of Bruce’s Legacy, the release says.

The previous record for Lake Tahoe was a body found at 1,062 feet in 2018, authorities say.

Normoyle was a New Jersey resident, KRNV reported.

This story was originally published September 29, 2020 at 7:29 AM with the headline "Boater missing since August found 1,500 feet beneath Lake Tahoe, police say."