Idaho sonar expert helps recover body of man who drowned in Lucky Peak outside Boise
With help from a local sonar expert, the Ada County Sheriff’s Office dive team has recovered the body of a 33-year-old man who jumped into Lucky Peak Lake on Sunday afternoon and did not resurface.
The Ada County Coroner’s Office said Thursday that the person who drowned was Rodolfo Thomas of Ontario, Oregon. A GoFundMe was set up for Thomas earlier this week, describing his death as “a tragedy for a family in which a father lost his life when he drowned trying to rescue his three daughters.”
A previous Idaho Statesman story reported that Thomas jumped into the lake without a life jacket near Turner Gulch when several tubes carrying children behind the boat flipped. All of the children were wearing life jackets, authorities said, and were OK.
The sheriff’s office confirmed the recovery of the body on Tuesday afternoon in a tweet, almost 48 hours after his disappearance.
The body of a man who fell into Lucky Peak on Sunday has been recovered. Sonar expert Gene Ralston located the man about 170 feet down and helped bring him to the surface earlier today. The Ada County Coroner's office will take over and ID the man publicly at a later time.
— Ada County Sheriff (@AdaCoSheriff) July 25, 2023
“Local sonar expert Gene Ralston located the man’s body about 170 feet down, very near to where he fell in, near Turner Gulch, just before noon,” Patrick Orr, Ada County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson, told the Idaho Statesman on Tuesday.
Orr said that Ralston — a 78-year-old Kuna resident who specializes in using sonar to detect bodies — helped a dive team retrieve the body after locating it.
As of Thursday morning, the GoFundMe for Thomas had raised $14,200 of a $25,000 goal, with proceeds going toward funeral and other expenses.
Lucky Peak Lake, part of Lucky Peak State Park, saw numerous drownings over the summer of 2022. Last weekend’s incident was the first reported drowning at the lake in 2023.
