Three drown on same day at Mead, Mohave

Three people who drowned in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area Thursday may have fallen victim to frigid waters.

Valentine Buzlea, 49, a Romanian national, drowned while swimming with friends in Chili Pepper Cove, 7 miles north of Katherine's Landing near the Arizona side of Lake Mohave, downstream from Hoover Dam. Witnesses told park rangers he went down in 20 feet of water, and a 16-year-old friend attempted to save him.

Jose J. Ramirez, 24, drowned in Lake Mead while swimming to shore with Karla Uribe, 16. Rangers were told they had left a boat off Hemenway Harbor at around 2:25 p.m. Both were from Las Vegas. Uribe was taken to University Medical Center and later released.

Dale Antonich, chief park ranger, said the incident, which happened under suspicious circumstances, is being investigated.

Luis J. Montes-Deoca, 23, of Las Vegas drowned at approximately 3:53 p.m. while swimming offshore from the north beach area of Lake Mead's Boulder Beach. Antonich said rangers attempted to revive him with CPR and then with an electric heart defibrillator.

"The air temperature is 90 degrees, but the water temperature at the surface is 64 degrees and probably 10 degrees colder a couple feet down," Antonich said. "Your body reacts to this, and the muscles cramp up."

Antonich said water temperatures will warm up around mid-June. He said the victims might have survived if they had been wearing personal floatation device vests. There have been three other deaths at the lake since the first of the year, Antonich said. This is the first time in 30 years, he said, that three people have died in separate drowning incidents on the same day.

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