POLK CITY, Iowa — A boater who went missing on Saylorville Lake has been found dead.
Crews were first called out to the lake shortly before 6 p.m. on Monday, May 29 after getting reports of an adult male falling off a boat. That search was called off around 9 p.m. due to low visibility.
Around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, crews found the victim, 42-year-old Kalpesh Patel of Urbandale, after picking up the search again. According to officials with the Polk County Sheriff's Office, sonar and cadaver dogs were able to identify Patel's potential location, and divers retrieved his body from the lake shortly afterward.
"It's not a crystal clear lake, so that causes some challenges. And then just the size of it. This is a big lake, they had a big area but we utilized every resource that we could come up with," said Capt. Ryan Evans with the Polk County Sheriff's Office.
The Polk County Sheriff's Office, Polk County Conservation, and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources were just a few of the agencies that assisted in the search efforts. Officials say they are currently in the process of interviewing witnesses who saw Patel overboard to figure out exactly what lead to his death.
"No sense of foul play or anything like this. This is strictly an accidental, a very, very unfortunate accident. And that's the way it's really looking. But we're still going to investigate it to the end and try to figure it all out," Evans said.
This is the second recent drowning in Iowa; Urias Gbarjolo went missing while swimming in Lake Red Rock on May 27 and was found dead the following Responders want to remind Iowans to take the appropriate precautions when out on the water to prevent any further tragedies.
"This is the first unofficial opening of the summer weekends and the lake is going to be very busy, so we would obviously encourage anybody to do everything safe. If you're in a boat, you should have a life preserver on," Evans said.