Man drowns near Monte Rio beach; teen missing at Lake Sonoma

Sonoma County waterways - which so often play host to carefree Fourth of July fun - became the scene of tragedy and anxiety for two groups of people Saturday, first at Monte Rio Beach and then at Lake Sonoma.

A Pittsburg man in his early 20s drowned in the Russian River near Monte Rio Beach sometime around noon, after floating downriver in an inflatable raft with two of his friends’ children in tow.

Several hours later, a teenage boy being pulled by a personal watercraft across Lake Sonoma in an inner tube fell off. A search for the teen continued into the night.

The Pittsburg man’s body was pulled from the river around 4:50 p.m. Friends identified him, but The Press Democrat is withholding his identity to allow for notification of family members.

The man, whose exact age was unclear Saturday, set out for a day of fun-filled activities with a group of adults and children early Saturday. Around 11 a.m., he floated downriver with his friends’ kids, ages 6 and 9. Around noon, the kids reached a rocky shore near Monte Rio Beach without the man, said friends who reported the man missing at 12:30 p.m.

“The kids called for help; we don’t know exactly what happened, but they were on the river and then they said they couldn’t see him anymore,” said Jaqueline Flores, a friend of the man’s who also lives in the East Bay.

Police and fire responders arrived around 12:45 p.m. to search for the man, eventually calling in underwater cameras and later a dive team. Friends said the man couldn’t swim. Flores said the two kids called for help, and someone pulled their raft out of the water.

“They ran to us and kept just telling us that they couldn’t see him,” Flores said.

The search for the Pittsburg man took place against an incongruous backdrop of families celebrating the July 4 holiday as part of Monte Rio’s popular Big Rocky Games. Young people and families - many of them seemingly unaware of a nearby search effort involving kayaks, underwater cameras and a dive team - continued to frolic in the river.

At one point, a 24-year-old San Francisco man nearly drowned about 25 yards upstream before a kayaker taking part in the search for the body paddled up to rescue him. The man was coughing up water when brought to shore.

Later, a woman paddling downriver approached an area where divers were underwater searching the river bottom. When she was asked to maneuver her kayak away from the divers, she told searchers, “You picked a really bad day for this.”

Upon being told there were divers searching for a body, she replied, “Whatever.”

Earlier, the man’s friends stood distraught near the shoreline watching emergency crews search for his body as beach-?goers played in the water. One family played catch with their dog in the shallows. Next to them, three toddlers frolicked in the sand, and about 10 other rafters paddled downstream

No public announcement was made about the potential drowning.

“We don’t want to worry everyone,” said Leslie Hofelich, maintenance supervisor with the Monte Rio Recreation and Parks District, as she directed traffic for dozens of vehicles searching for a parking spot in the crowded beach parking lot. “This is so frustrating, we don’t want another fatality. That’s why we put up signs in English and Spanish that say ‘Danger.’?”

The scene of Saturday’s drowning was the spot where another man drowned exactly four years previously.

On July 4, 2011, Juan Leon, 30, of Santa Rosa drowned trying to save his girlfriend after the two were caught in the river’s current. Leon’s girlfriend survived.

The water near the beach where the man drowned is about 12 feet deep, Monte Rio Fire Chief Steve Baxman said.

“People shouldn’t be in the water without a flotation device if they can’t swim,” Baxman said. “Those are the people who this happens to - the ones who can’t swim and get in the water. Look around, there’s all these other people who aren’t having any trouble, and that’s because they’re wearing flotation devices.”

People drown in the Russian River every year. Many of them - about 75 percent - are Latino, according to county officials who identified the disturbing trend after compiling statistics on drowning deaths in recent years. The county in response has debuted a bilingual program aimed at teaching people to swim at an early age.

At Lake Sonoma, rescuers from the Sheriff’s Office, the Army Corps of Engineers and several local fire departments were searching the waters late into the evening for a 14-year-old boy who was reported missing around 3:55 p.m.

The boy appears to have floated away from where his family was gathered at a private marina on the lake, across a deep channel on an inner tube with his cousin, according to marina staff and the Sheriff’s Office.

The boys, who weren’t wearing life vests, were offered a ride back across the roughly quarter -?mile channel from another set of youths on Jet Skis but fell off the inner tube at some point.

The missing boy’s cousin was able to swim to shore, the Sheriff’s Office said. He could be seen onshore around 5 p.m.

It wasn’t immediately clear how old the youths on the personal watercraft were, but they were cooperating with the Sheriff’s Office, Lt. Greg Miller said.

Jason Boaz, acting chief for the Healdsburg Fire Department, said, “It sounds like they were being pulled across the lake and at some point fell off.”

The Sheriff’s Office’s helicopter initially searched the area along with its marine unit, which was already on the lake when the call came in. As the afternoon wore on, dive teams from the Marin and Sonoma County sheriff’s offices searched the waters for the boy. A boat arrived from the Lakeville Fire Department to search the water using sonar. Fire department personnel helped with the search and stood by to provide the boy with care if he was found, Boaz said.

Miller said teams would search into the night until it felt unsafe to continue. If they didn’t find the boy, they’d continue the search in the morning.

The water in their search area ranged from 30 to 200 feet deep, he said.

Janet Folk, general manager for the marina, said the boy’s family had been coming to the area for a long time from another city in the Bay Area, possibly San Francisco.

When she heard the boy was missing, she sent her son, who works at the marina, into the water to help search.

“Any death is hard, but when you know them personally and talk to them, it makes it harder,” she said.

Family members of the boy said they did not want to talk with the press Saturday afternoon.

Staff Photographer Beth Schlanker contributed to this ?report. You can reach Staff Writer Angela Hart at 526-8503 or angela.hart@pressdemocrat.com and Staff Writer Jamie Hansen at 521-5205 or jamie.hansen@pressdemocrat.com.