Body Of Closter Man Found 1,500 Feet Underwater In Lake Tahoe

NEW JERSEY – The body of a Closter man who went missing in Lake Tahoe last month was found 1,500 feet underwater after weeks of search efforts, authorities said Tuesday.

Ryan Normoyle, 29, rented a boat on Aug. 10 while vacationing in the region, the South Lake Tahoe Police Department wrote on Monday. That night, Ryan’s boat washed ashore in Glenbrook, Nevada, but Ryan was nowhere to be found.

“South Lake Tahoe Police started a missing persons investigation with the help of the Douglas County Sheriff's Office. They found Ryan had recorded himself jumping off the boat, but the boat was left slightly in gear and moving forward at a slow speed,” said the South Lake Tahoe Police Department in a statement.

“Investigators think Ryan couldn’t swim fast enough to catch it. The phone captured GPS data while recording and provided a possible location for a search and rescue operation.”

Marine units from the police department searched the area and deployed remote-controlled vehicles to aid in the investigation as well as experts from the University of California, Davis Research Team, but could not locate Normoyle.

Normoyle’s family finally reached out to Keith Cormican from Bruce's Legacy, a nonprofit organization that specializes in underwater body recovery. The 29-year-old was found Sunday under 1,565 feet of water, per the police department.

According to Keith Cormican, the founder of Bruce’s Legacy, the incident marked the deepest water recovery in the United States and Canada.

“I can assure you that it takes many volunteers to do what we do,” reads a statement on the nonprofit website. “There is no way this recovery could have been pulled off without all the help and cooperation that we had here on Lake Tahoe this week. It takes special people to be able to do this work and we had many stepping up to get Ryan back home.”