BOISE, Idaho (CBS2) — The Ada County Sheriff's Office says the body of a man who drowned at Lucky Peak Sunday has been recovered.
What was supposed to be a weekend getaway with family at Lucky Peak, ended in tragedy.
Deputies say the 33-year-old man jumped into the lake to help his kids who'd been riding tubes that flipped over.
Officers say the kids had on life jackets, but he did not. He went under and never came back up.
Lt. Kevin Lowry says the water is 68 degrees at the surface.
"You get that take your breath away sensation when you enter the water," said Lowry.
"That temperature differential is quite a shock to the body and it can actually close up the epiglottis and you can't breathe whether you wanted to or not," said search and recovery expert Gene Ralston.
Ralston says one of the people on the boat happened to take a photo just moments before the man drowned, and they were able to get GPS coordinates from that photo. Ralston estimates the man was found about 150 feet away from those coordinates.
Recovery efforts had been on pause until Tuesday. The Ada County Sheriff's Office says OSHA rules prevent their divers from going deeper than 100 feet.
That's where Ralston and his wife Sandy's expertise and equipment come in.
The two have been recovering bodies across the U.S. and Canada and bringing closure to families since 1983. This recovery is now their 131st.
Ralston explains how the sonar technology works.
"The system we use is housed in a heavy torpedo-shaped object that we tow 10 or 15 feet off the bottom, therefore the source of the sound, or think of it as light. It illuminates the bottom and then it processes the return reflection signal into a plan view of the bottom. Anything that has some height to it has a shadow it, which is very distinctive in the case of a drowning victim," Ralston said.
Once the body is located, their remote-operated vehicle uses claws to grab onto the body, and it's pulled it up.
In this case, the body was found about 170 feet below the surface, according to Ralston.
Ralston says this kind of work never gets easy.
"When you go up, walk up the boat ramp, and tell the family you're bringing their loved one home, there's no feeling like it, and I think that's what drives it," Ralston said.
Ralston says he's survived two boat crashes in his life.
"I was extremely lucky that I didn't drown, and you know, I just can't imagine my parents, my friends, anybody else involved, going through life without being able to find me," he said.
His message for people who go into the water: "Be sure you have your life jacket on, period."
Ralston expects he'll do this work for the remainder of his life.
"If you've been there, it's just something that gets in your blood, and it's something you can do," Ralston said.
The drowning victim leaves behind a wife and five young children.
The Ada County Coroner's office will take over and identify the man publicly at a later time.
This is a developing news story. CBS2 will release an update when more information is available.
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