Bodies Of 2 Missing Lake Perris Boaters Found

LAKE PERRIS, CA — The bodies of two men who drowned at Lake Perris Wednesday were recovered Thursday afternoon, officials said.

The Riverside County Sheriff's Department dive team recovered the body of the second man just after 4 p.m., while the first body was recovered shortly after 1 p.m., according to California State Parks Superintendent John Rowe.

The Riverside County Sheriff-Coroner's Bureau will confirm their identities and causes of death, though family members identified the victims to Southern California News Group as Bob Mauro, 59, of Hawthorne, and Patrick Howard, 53, of Gardena. A fundraiser for Howard's family and memorial was recently launched over GoFundMe.

The men were boating on Lake Perris Wednesday afternoon when something went terribly wrong. At approximately 4 p.m., three State Park peace officers and Lake Perris lifeguard personnel began a search for the missing men after a 911 report about a man falling from a tube trailing behind a boat.

"The man was unable to swim back to the tube," Rowe said in an emailed statement.

The man in the boat jumped into the water in an attempt to rescue the person in distress, but he also began to struggle, and both men disappeared.

"The men were last seen underwater," Rowe said.

The lake depth where the men were last seen was between 25 to 45 feet deep. They were approximately 500 yards from shore in the boating area north of Alessandro Island, Rowe said.

The California State Parks investigation into the incident is ongoing, according to Rowe.

The Riverside County Sheriff's Department dive team practices regularly in Lake Perris, according to the agency's social media page.