Body found in Lake Mead after swimmer goes missing on Sunday

By Riley Snyder

Published Monday, June 24, 2013 | 11:03 a.m.

Updated Monday, June 24, 2013 | 1:09 p.m.

Officials have located a body in Lake Mead they believe may be a drowning victim and are engaged in a recovery effort.

The search for a 30-year-old Las Vegas man who was last seen swimming without a life jacket in Lake Mead on Sunday, is the second such incident in four days.

The man was swimming with friends in a small cove around 2 p.m. Sunday east of Callville Bay when he began to struggle in the water, leading a witness to call 911, Lake Mead spokeswoman Christie Vanover said. Alcohol appeared to be a contributing factor to the incident, she said.

Officials from the National Park Service and Nevada Department of Wildlife initially searched the cove and surrounding areas for several hours on Sunday. They resumed with a deeper search Monday morning with Metro Police, she said.

Metro divers located the body just before 10 a.m. and recovered it from the water just before 11 a.m.

Officials have not yet identified the body they found.

In a separate incident, a 35-year-old Chicago man disappeared Thursday afternoon after jumping into the lake without a life jacket near Sentinel Island in the Boulder Basin, the Associated Press reported. The National Park Service reported that the man was last seen around 4 p.m. between Painter's Cove and Castle Reef. The man had not been found as of Monday morning, and officials have requested additional resources for that search because of limits on their own equipment, Vanover said