Press Release
6/12/2014
3:00 PM
Drowning at Bullfrog Marina
At approximately 8:00 a.m. on Thursday June 12, 2014, the
body of a 22 year old male was recovered near the boat docks in Bullfrog
Marina.
Tuesday, June 10th, 22 year old Alec McQueen
from Salt Lake City, was boating with two female friends in the Bullfrog
area. All three are employees of
ARAMARK, and were living and working in Bullfrog for the summer. They were returning to the dock area about
7p.m. As the boat was pulling into an open
slip to park, the driver turned off the boat and Alec who was sitting on the
back of the boat jumped in. The driver
could see Alec in the water a few feet behind the boat. She looked away and when she turned back a
couple of seconds later she could not see Alec.
When they could not find Alec, they called 911 and a
National Park Service, (NPS), ranger arrived shortly after. Other personnel arrived from NPS and Utah
State Parks. Notification was made to
the NPS dive team and the Kane County Sheriff’s Office. Because it was so late in the day, it was
decided that a search would be initiated the next morning.
Wednesday morning the NPS Lake Powell dive team was
transported by plane from Wahweep Marina to Bullfrog to assess the situation. When
their dive boat arrived in early afternoon, they attempted to use their underwater
robot and sonar to locate Alec. The
sonar malfunctioned and after several tries, it was determined that it could
not be fixed on site. Three divers from
the NPS team were put in the water and attempted to search the initial target
area. They searched at a depth of about
90 feet in zero visibility conditions.
They made several passes over the area working completely by feel before
having to return to the surface. At the
same time, a request was made to the Summit County Sheriff’s Office for the use
of their dive team, robot, and sonar.
They arrived in Bullfrog at about 4 a.m. Thursday morning.
After a 6 a.m. briefing on Thursday, the Summit County
team launched their boat and were able to locate Alec’s body about 7:30 in the
primary search area at a depth of 113 feet.
The National Park Service’s divers were then able to retrieve the body
and bring it to the surface. The Kane
County Sheriff was on scene and took position of the body and transported it to
the Utah Medical Examiner’s Office in Salt Lake City.
Alec’s Parents and siblings were on scene at the time of
the recovery and were able to see Alec before he was transported by Sheriff
Smith.
Thanks to all those involved in this difficult
incident. Numerous agencies responded to
the scene to include National Park Service, Utah State Parks, Kane County
Sheriff’s Office, and Summit County Search and Rescue. The case remains under joint investigation.
