Casey Richardson
The RCMP E Division underwater recovery team arrived to begin searching Osoyoos Lake Saturday for a 41-year-old man who went missing Monday and is presumed dead.
The drowned man was identified by friends as Tom Dennehy, described as a “pillar” of his community in Oliver.
The man was playing fetch with his two dogs in the water outside a boat when he noticed one of them needed help.
“He threw a flip flop too far so the dog couldn’t find it. He went out to help his dog actually find the flip-flop, and at that point it appears the dog became alarmed and got on the man’s back,” Sgt. Jason Bayda, area commander for the Osoyoos RCMP detachment said.
“And at that point it looks like the guy just couldn’t stay above water with a dog on his back.”
Although the local police have searched the lake very extensively since the first tip-off, they have so far had no luck finding him.
“That’s why the underwater recovery team is here to help with that,” Bayda said. “We’re going to work as hard as we can with the locations that we’ve been given by witnesses, and we’re just really hoping that we can find him today and bring some closure to the family.”
The team will concentrate on an area where they located the body, which is approximately 500 square meters. A drop sonar device is used, which sits on a tripod and is lowered to the bottom of the lake.
“Basically, it will take a circling image of the area and all the objects will reflect and give them the picture back to the boat in real time,” Bayda said.
“If they see a body down there, it will reflect back to them. And they’re going to pinpoint that exact location, and then they’re going to dive in and retrieve it.”
The Underwater Recovery Team currently has 24 members across the province who work within the RCMP in other roles alongside their dive team work.
Bayda said members will be called up and those available will travel to form a team and work together.
“We can say we’d like to make sure we find them, stay here until we find this guy. But unfortunately this is not always the case,” he added.
“We’re going to do a thorough search, we’re going to do everything we can to find the person. Sometimes it’s just not meant to be, but they’re going to work extremely hard.”
RCMP are searching for the body at a depth of 130 feet.
“A body 130 feet deep in this lake will stay down for a significant amount of time.”
The tragedy of the situation has the RCMP asking people to use caution when on the lake and practice proper water safety.
“We always encourage wearing life jackets when you’re on a boat, we realize it’s a situation where you’re swimming outside your boat and we don’t always wear life jackets when we’re swimming, especially if we’re able swimmers,” Baida said.
“Whether we’re good swimmers or not, if we’re out with the dog, just make sure you’re wearing your life jacket in case the dog gets on top of you. When in a boat, please wear your life jackets.
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