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Missing boater recovered from record depth at Lake Tahoe

Tahoe Daily Tribune staff report

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. — The body of a missing boater has been recovered from the depths of Lake Tahoe in what authorities are calling the deepest recovery ever made in the United States and Canada.

The body of 29-year-old Ryan Normoyle, of New Jersey, who went missing on Aug. 10, was recovered Sunday from a record depth of 1,565 feet according to a nonprofit group that specializes in underwater body recovery. The previous deepest recovery at Lake Tahoe was in 2018 at a depth of 1,062 feet, said a press release.

Normoyle went missing after renting a boat from a South Lake Tahoe rental company. His boat washed ashore on Tahoe’s East Shore in Glenbrook, Nev., that evening and Normoyle was nowhere to be found.



South Lake Tahoe Police started a missing persons investigation with the help of the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office and found that Normoyle had recorded himself jumping off the boat, but the boat was left slightly in gear and moving forward at a slow speed. Authorities think Normoyle couldn’t swim fast enough to catch up.

Normoyle’s phone captured GPS data while recording and provided a location to start a search.



Douglas County Sheriff’s Office’s Marine 7 and Washoe County Sheriff’s Office’s Marine 9 responded and deployed remote operated vehicles to search the area. Officials said the marine units worked the area heavily for several days with no luck.

A UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center team provided additional data on the water currents and conditions the day Normoyle went missing. The TERC team also used its unmanned submarine to search and scan the bottom of the lake with no success.

Normoyle’s family reached out to Keith Cormican from Bruce’s Legacy, a nonprofit that specializes in underwater body recovery, and he agreed to help.

SLTPD initiated another search Thursday, Sept. 24, with assistance from DCSO, WCSO and South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue and found Normoyle on Saturday in almost the deepest part of the lake that at its bottom is 1,645 feet deep.

Authorities said technical issues delayed the recovery until Sunday.

Cormican, founder of Bruce’s Legacy, said it is the deepest recorded recovery in the United States and Canada.

Officials say the recovery would not have been possible without the support of the Normoyle family and the partnering agencies.

The Tahoe Daily Tribune is a sister publication to the Sierra Sun.


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