Sheriff says missing boater drowned in Flathead Lake
Flathead Lake is shown from the Jewel Basin Hiking Area on July 1, 2018. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Search and rescue teams from Lake, Flathead and Missoula counties, as well as Kootenai County, Idaho, on Monday continued scouring Flathead Lake for the body of a missing boater, presumed to have drowned after becoming separated from his boat Thursday, June 27.
According to Lake County Sheriff Don Bell, the missing boater has been identified as 34-year-old Chad Hansen of Missoula.
Lake County 911 took the report of a boater on Flathead Lake who was in trouble at around 9:41 p.m. Hansen “somehow ended up in the water, separated from his boat,” stated a press release from the Sheriff's Office.
“Witnesses attempted to assist him, but were not able to,” Bell said, which prompted the search and rescue mission. “Based on the information gathered from witnesses, he has died of drowning.”
“The Lake County Sheriff’s Office and Coroner’s Office offers our condolences to the family and friends of Mr. Hansen and we commit to do our best to find him,” the sheriff said.