UPDATE: Sweetwater County Sheriff Mike Lowell and County Coroner Dale Majhanovich identified the victim who drowned on Flaming Gorge Saturday as Lance Heninger, 48, of North Ogden, Utah.
Heninger was with two friends who launched their boat from Buckboard early Saturday morning and were competing in the Ducks Unlimited Fishing Derby.
The three men were about 3½ miles southeast of Buckboard Marina when the wind picked up violently and the water became very choppy. One wave swamped the boat and the men began bailing, but another wave swamped the craft completely and all three went into the water. Heninger was the only one not wearing a life jacket.
When the men had not returned to a residence in Manila as planned by late Saturday night, concerned family and friends checked the parking lot at Buckboard and there found their pickup and empty boat trailer. They then notified the Sheriff’s Office.
At about 1:30 a.m., the deputies found one of the men on the Gorge’s east shore and 15 minutes later they located the other man who was estimated to be in the water about 10 hours.
Both men were taken to Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County in Rock Springs, where they were treated and released.
The Marine Unit and the wardens of the Wyoming Game & Fish Department returned to its search and found Heninger’s body in a cove along the Gorge’s east bank at about 4:00 AM.
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SWEETWATER COUNTY, Wyoming (News4Utah) – A Utah man has died, and two others rescued after a boating accident in Flaming Gorge Sunday early morning.
According to Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office, they were called to a boating accident at about 1 p.m. involving three men in a small boat which has capsized south of the Buckboard Marina.
Sheriff’s deputies and Wyoming Game & Fish personnel rescued two of the men and recovered the body of a Utah man, who is believed to have drowned.
His identity is being withheld pending notification of family.
Adverse weather is believed to have been a factor. More information is expected to be released Monday.
