Search Resumes for Kayaker in Lake Washington

MERCER ISLAND -- The search continued Sunday for the body of a kayaker reported to have fallen from a vessel off Newport Shores, and Bellevue police are checking into a possible connection to a Bellevue man who was reported missing Saturday, law enforcement officials say.

Seattle and Mercer Island patrol boats were searched the East Channel between Mercer Island and Bellevue Sunday to see if they can locate a person underwater through sonar before sending divers into the water, said Mercer Island Police Cmdr. Leslie Burns.

"Unfortunately, the lake is covered with logs and rocks and debris in this area," she said.

If the person has been in the Lake Washington since Saturday afternoon, the search mostly likely is a recovery effort, Burns said.

However, there is reason to hope that the person's body will be recovered, she said. The search has been narrowed to a 200-square yard box between Bellevue and Mercer Island and the search area is about 35 feet deep, Burns said. The police divers can go about 100 feet deep, she said.

The search began at 3:45 p.m. Saturday after a witness who lives in a home on Newport Shores told police that she saw someone clinging to a capsized kayak, and then disappear into the water, law enforcement and fire officials said Saturday.

Rescuers recovered a kayak with equipment inside, but no identification, Burns said. Early reports of a life jacket being inside the kayak were incorrect, she said.

A helicopter from the U.S. Coast Guard swept the shorelines and the water surface for any signs of a kayaker, and patrol units from Mercer Island and Seattle searched the water, she said.

The incident occurred just as the winds and rain were picking up, she said, complicating search efforts in choppy water.

Bellevue police took a missing person report on Saturday for a Bellevue man, and are investigating a possible connection, said Officer Carla Iafrate, spokeswoman for the Bellevue Police Department, which is handling the case.

However, she declined to provide any specific information about the case, because investigators are not completely certain the two incidents are connected.

"That's all we're comfortable saying at this point," she said.