Local News

SEARCH FOR DROWNING VICTIM ENTERS FOURTH DAY

Jul 14, 2014

Authorities are entering their fourth day in search of an Oroville man who fell into Palmer Lake on Friday and is presumed drowned.

Okanogan County Sheriff Frank Rogers said the report came in around 12:45 pm on Friday.

He said, the two men were fishing along the shore of the lake when 57-year-old Darrel L. Williams, of Oroville, stood up in the back of the boat and then fell overboard. When he surfaced his partner asked him if he was okay and threw him a life jacket. Rogers said Williams told his friend he was alright but then began to struggle and went under the water and never surfaced. Williams’s partner, who was a former diver in the U.S. Navy, immediately dove in and tried to locate Williams but was unable to find him.

Rogers said divers were in the water searching for Williams Friday, Saturday and Sunday. He said they have used Sheriff’s office boats along the Border Patrol boat with sonar and an underwater camera.

He said the Sheriff’s Office, Search and Rescue and Border Patrol will be on Palmer Lake again today with divers attempting to locate Williams.

Williams is a retired U.S. Border Patrol Agent with his last duty station being at the Oroville Branch of the United States Border Patrol.

This is the third drowning in Okanogan County this year.