I interviewed Operator at the Brigham Hospital concerning the accident. OPERATOR said that they had been skiing and wakeboarding on the North end of the reservoir and had just pulled in their skier when the wind from a thunderstorm hit. They turned into the wind and were enroute to the South Marina when they encountered two or three very large waves. The waves washed over the front of the boat and began filling it with water. The passengers on the boat attempted to bail the water out, but were unable to keep up with the water coming in. The occupants of the boat put on PFDs and began grabbing buoys, wakeboards, etc. and abandoned the boat. The boat sank and the last that Operator saw it was about a foot of the bow pointing out of the water, but he soon lost sight of it. 

The occupants of the boat then began swimming to shore. Eventually one subject became tired and unable to keep up. Victim and one other stayed with him while the 3 others continued to swim to shore. They attempted to follow the group swimming, but eventually made it to shore at the Pelican Group Site. OPERATOR said they could see the lights from the responding rescue units. After being onshore approximately 10 minutes the 3 were located by Search and Rescue personnel.

BOAT RECOVERY: Searches for the sunken boat were conducted on 9/1/12 by personnel from State Parks and the Box Elder Dive Team. Members located debris that had washed ashore, but were unable to locate the boat. An additional search was conducted by the DPS Dive Team on 9/5/12 using side scan sonar, but the boat was not located. The OPERATORS picked up the recovered items from the boat on 9/8/12 and said that a private company would be out the following week to attempt to locate the boat.
Willard                       