Body Pulled From Lake Travis

AUSTIN, TEXAS — The body of a swimmer was recovered at Lake Travis on Sunday near Pace Bend Park, officials said.

In a sparsely worded tweet, the Travis County Sheriff's Office confirmed the body was pulled from Baldwin Cove at the lake at around noon. Kristen Dark, the sheriff's office spokeswoman, told the Austin American-Statesman that divers had been searching for the victim since he jumped off a boat near Pace Bend Park just before 7 p.m. on Saturday without resurfacing.

On Monday, the swimmer was identified as Rashaun Lamont Donaldson, 23, of Lewisville, Texas, a city just outside Dallas. What began as a search for him on Saturday later became a recovery mission during which officials — resigned to the reality the swimmer drowned — search for a body. That recovery mission was suspended due to darkness late Saturday before being resumed on Sunday, Dark told some media outlets.

See related story: Latest Lake Travis Drowning Victim Identified

The body was recovered about an hour and a half after diver resumed their search at around 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, Dark added.

The recovered body is the latest to be pulled from Lake Travis in recent months in a body of water that is deceptively deep for many visitors. Sometimes, swimmers nearly drown only to succumb to their injuries later. That was the case on July 8, when Saugata Ghosh, 34, of Austin, was pronounced dead at 5:26 p.m. on Sunday after being rushed to Baylor Scott & White Medical Center. Ghosh had been rescued in an area near Emerald Point marina Sunday afternoon.

The previous month, the body of Ricardo Sierra Martinez, 27, of Mexico was pulled from the sometimes-treacherous Lake Travis waters. Friends of the victim reported him missing on June 10 after having seen him resting on a sandbar before resuming swimming. He had swum out to a small island on Lake Travis adjacent to Bob Wentz Park before disappearing from sight some 30 to 45 minutes later, officials said at the time.

In May alone, there were three separate drownings at Lake Travis.

There have been many other incidents to occur at the man-made reservoir:

• In June 2016, the body of a man in his 30s was pulled from Lake Travis after he went missing in the Little Devils Hollow portion of the lake. The county sheriff's office had received calls about a body that was seen floating on the lake before retrieving the corpse at the Emerald Point Marina portion of the lake.
• In July 2016, a 2-year-old girl drowned after falling off a dock into Lake Travison a Saturday evening. When Travis County Sheriff's Office deputies arrived at the scene, they the child fell off a boat dock at a private residence in the 8000 block of Lakeview St.
• In August 2016, the family of Olman Ramirez took it upon themselves not to give up the search for their loved one who went missing at Lake Travis, ultimately finding his body at south marina shore. The man was reported missing early evening after he jumped into the lake to help a friend who fell from the party boat in which they were traveling on the lake's surface. Family members found the body four days later. A Travis County officials told Patch at the time that stronger-than-normal winds ahead of a line of thunderstorms may have contributed to the drowning, given its effect on the currents.
• On Jan. 19, 2017, Cody Quincy May, 31, of West Haven, Conn., drowned after trying to join his children on a raft, according to Travis County Sheriff's Office officials. Witnesses told police several of May's children were playing on a raft near the shoreline when May began walking out to the raft and suddenly stepped into deep water. He immediately began to struggle while calling for help. A nearby fisherman tried to go to his aid, but arrived too late to save him. May had moved his family to Austin just a week before his death.
• In May 2017, the body of a 21-year-old man was pulled from Lake Travis. The man had been cliff diving after arriving at the site on a party barge filled with friends.
• In June 2017, Travis County Sheriff's Office officials identified Brian Robinson, 31, of White Plains, N.Y., as the victim of a June 11 drowning. Like Olman, Robinson had been on a party barge before falling into the water. Just the day before, Lower Colorado River Authority officials had re-opened Lake Travis after shutting down access on June 6 due to altered flood-related conditions that made it too dangerous for recreational use. Water levels by then began receding after earlier heavy downpours, and stood at a level of just over 690 feet above sea level, officials said at the time.
• In July 2017, Saugata Ghosh, 34, of Austin, was rescued after a near-drowning at Lake Travis, only to later succumb to his injuries. According to witnesses, Ghosh and several friends were swimming near their party boat when he started to struggle in the water, sheriff's officials said.
• Manuel Salas, 53 of Elgin was reported missing on May 5, 2018, in an area of Lake Travis near Mansfield Dam Park. His body has yet to be recovered.
• Rachel Kathleen Scott, 25 of Round Rock was reported missing between Starnes Island and Volente Beach on May 19, 2018. Her body also has yet to be found.
• Diego Humberto Cerda-Acosta, 30 of Austin was reported missing in the water near Bob Wentz Park on May 27, 2018. His body was recovered the following morning.
• Ricardo Sierra Martinez, 27 of Mexico was reported missing in the water near Bob Wentz Park on June 10, 2018. His body was recovered the morning of June 12.
• Luke Fashaw, 36 of San Antonio was reported missing in the water in the Devil’s Hollow area on July 28, 2018. His body was recovered the same day.
• Juan Maldonado, 46 of Cedar Park was pulled from Lake Travis by friends after becoming distressed in the water on August 18, 2018. CPR efforts were unsuccessful and he was pronounced deceased the same day.

Some victims' bodies have yet to be recovered from the murky depths months after their drownings. On May 5, Salas, 53, of Elgin drowned at the lake as his wife watched helplessly from the deck of their boat. He had gone into the water after attempting to anchor the watercraft, went under and never resurfaced. Rachel Kathleen Scott, 25, of Round Rock went missing between Starnes Island and Volente Beach on May 19. Her body also has yet to be recovered.

Salas's widow, Roseann Salas, spoke to Patch at length about her ordeal three weeks after her husband's presumed drowning. In the interview, she described how it took rescue teams a full 30 minutes to reach her after making the initial frantic call for help. The sheriff's office spokeswoman, Dark, confirmed the timeline.

In August, the still-grieving victim's wife updated Patch on her efforts to memorialize her husband's presumed death, even absent his body. After months of effort, she secured a court order to compel Travis County officials to provide her with a death record so she could stage a religious service celebrating his life as a means of achieving closure.

But negotiating the bureaucracy proved to be a robust hurdle, she said.

"I had to get a court order to approve the affidavit to get a death record," she told Patch in a follow-up telephone interview on Aug. 3. "In the beginning, Travis County told me I'd have to go to probate. When I spoke to an attorney, they referred me back to Travis County. The investigator called me back and said he'd do some calling around and get back to me. It took two to three weeks to get back to me."

Ultimately, county officials pulled all the never-recovered-bodies cases together given there were more than three such cases, she said, in a move that allowed her to finally secure the needed death certificate.

"They filed paperwork and got the judge to approve it and got the record filed with vital statistics, and that process took another month to complete," she told Patch. "He'll get his military honors, the honor guard will be there, and will be presented with the flag," she said prior to the then-planned service while providing Patch with the notice alerting to the religious service.

As for herself, she said she's suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome after witnessing her husband's disappearance into the lake, and was still unable to return to work. She said family members have helped her out financially while she helps care for grandchildren. She's now trying to secure Social Security benefits to help defray her living costs.

But at least she was finally able to lay her husband to rest, in a manner of speaking. Even as she continued to negotiate through her grief, Mrs. Salas described how the service honoring her husband would help mitigate the lingering pain of having lost him while helping her achieve a much-needed sense of closure three months after her husband disappeared into the Lake Travis depths.

"I could not just go on like it didn't happen," Mrs. Salas told Patch. "Just because we don't have a body doesn't mean we can't celebrate his life. He deserves a service just like everyone else."

And so, at 2 p.m. on Aug. 4, the memorial service honoring Manuel John Salas proceeded as scheduled in her husband's adopted hometown of Elgin, Texas, some 37 miles east Lake Travis, at the Elgin Funeral Home. "He will forever be remembered as an extremely generous, funny and kindhearted soul," the long-sought obituary reads in part.

Photo of Manuel Salas provided by Roseann Salas

Related stories:

Austin Man Hospitalized After Lake Travis Near-Drowning Succumbs To Injuries (Update)

Body Of Latest Lake Travis Drowning Victim Identified

3rd Drowning This Month Reported At Lake Travis

Lake Travis Drowning Victim Had Moved Family To Austin Just One Week Before Death

Agonizing Wait For Wife Of Boater Claimed By Lake Travis

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