Bodies believed to be those of an Orem couple were recovered from Strawberry Reservoir Friday, the climax of what turned into a remarkable nine-day "CSI"-like search after their fishing boat was swamped in a storm.
High-tech sonar and recovery equipment enabled searchers to find not only the bodies of Steven and Catheryn Roundy but unexpectedly those of three other people long missing in the reservoir. The body of another long-lost victim has yet to be located.
About 10 a.m. Friday, the Marine Sonic Technology Side Scan Sonar on board the Utah Department of Public Safety's boat detected the
fourth body found during the search. A submarine-like device, Deep Ocean Engineering's HD2+2 model, which is equipped with robot arms and hooks and can be operated from the surface, retrieved and carried the body to the top. It was that of a female.
"Because we don't have any other female bodies that we know of in the reservoir, we assumed it to be Catheryn's," said Wasatch County Sheriff's Capt. John Rogers.
The body was taken to the State Medical Examiner's Office for positive identification.
Searchers continued scanning the floor of the lake using the torpedo-shaped sonar device and a very short time later found a fifth body, this time a man. Again, the medical examiner will verify the man's identification, but Rogers said it is believed to be Steven Roundy.
New ways to search
Sonar equipment, belonging to Department of Public Safety, has aided in searches for several victims in Utah's waters during the past two years, including most recently at Utah Lake when a small plane crashed during a storm.
"For divers this would have been a very technical dive," said Utah Highway Patrol Lt. Doug McCleve, speaking for the Department of Public Safety. "They could only have been under the water for an eight- to 10-minute duration and would have had only 3- to 5-feet of visibility. They would not have covered a lot of ground."
During the week-and-a-half search of Strawberry, McCleve said their sonar equipment scanned nearly 12 square miles of ground beneath 90 feet of water.
"It was a lot like finding a needle in a haystack," he said. "There were a lot of unknowns, including the point where the boat went in, how long they may have swam, and where the wind was blowing that day."
Systematic planning allowed searchers to determine the best course of action, and McCleve said that "while searching those grid patterns, we just happened upon the other drowning victims."
Sound waves are sent out from a towfish, being pulled behind the boat, and are bounced off the earth and other structures under the water in a 262-foot swath. The unit hovers 10- to 15-feet above the bottom of the lake, photographing everything the sound waves touch and relaying those computer images, "similar to pictures we've seen of the moon," McCleve said, to searchers above the water.
"It's remarkable.... It's changed the way we search for drowning victims in Utah without putting divers in harm's way," he said, adding that without the cooperative efforts of multiple agencies, such dramatic search results would not have been possible.
Summit County's remotely operated submarine was sent to retrieve the bodies located by the sonar images. In addition to recovering bodies, the sub is used to check the stability of dams and look for signs of possible tampering.
"When we purchased it, we did so with the understanding we could respond to anywhere in Utah and possibly Idaho and Wyoming to help out," said Summit County Sheriff Dave Edmunds.
Although the sub has been used for a handful of other situations, Edmunds said this is the first time it has recovered multiple victims.
It has the capability of going underwater several hundred feet and picking up objects up to 250 to 300 pounds. Over the past week, once the sonar picked up an anomaly, the sub was sent with its camera to give a searchers a closer look.
'Prayer of thanks'
After retrieving the bodies Friday, and presuming they were the Roundys', officials took family members of Steven and Catheryn out onto the lake. When they returned, they told media that it had been a tough week for the family, but they had a sense of relief now that their loved ones had been found.
"It's a sad day for us. But again it is exciting for us to be able to put some closure to this. We feel very blessed we've been able to find more than just Catheryn and Steven. We actually had the opportunity of assisting some other families in putting closure on many years of sadness for them as well," said Noah Springer, Catheryn's brother.
"It was nice to go out and say a prayer of thanks that we were able to put this to an end, to be able to bo out there and thank the searchers and go out there and see their last point," he said.
A Web site where people can leave thoughts, memories and comments about Steven and Catheryn was set up at stevenandcatheryn.meetfranklin.net. The site, originally set up by Steven before the accident, also accepts donations to help the couple's 6-year-old son, Wesley Steven Roundy.
"We don't have words to express the sense of appreciation and gratitude we have that they have stayed with this, with it, under very difficult circumstances and out of it has come the recovery, not only of our dear ones but others as well," said Steven's father, Martin Roundy.
Steven is remembered on the Web site as a "computer guru and fishing fanatic." Catheryn was a book collector and had recently taken a trip to Paris. Her dreams were to have a room with books stretching on shelves from the floor to the ceiling all around her and to open a literacy center to help others learn to read.
Many volunteers
Steven and Catheryn were in a 14-foot aluminum fishing boat with two others on Nov. 8 when heavy winds whipped up waves on the lake, filling the boat and causing it to sink. Two others, including Kimball, were able to swim to shore by grabbing a gas can and a life jacket and paddling with their legs.
On Nov. 10, searchers recovered the body of Drake McMillan, 46, a Salt Lake area man who was last seen swimming in the cold lake in 2001 before drowning.
Bad weather prevented searchers from going back on the reservoir on Nov. 11 and 12, but they resumed the search on Nov. 13. On Nov. 15 they found the first of three men who had been missing since 1995. Austin M. Lloyd, Phillip L. Shepherd and Daniel J. Maycock were lost in Strawberry 11 years ago in a scenario similar to the Roundys', according to authorities.
On Thursday, searchers found the group's boat and remains of a second member of the party. It was the third body found by searchers to that point.
"We're deeply grateful for the families who have been waiting 11 years for this day. We take a bit of solace that in this loss there has been a blessing for them," said Martin Roundy, Steven's father.
After the bodies presumed to be those of the Roundys were found Friday, searchers went back to the area where two other victims were recovered Wednesday and Thursday and spent the rest of the day making one last effort for the lone remaining victim.
Whether searchers would return to the reservoir this weekend was questionable Friday.
"My guess is, with a storm coming and with the amount of time spent so far ... it's a safe guess this is it for this year, but I may be wrong," Rogers said. "All these volunteers have been up there for week and a half. We may have to return in the spring."
Most of the members of the Wasatch County Search and Rescue team are volunteers and have been away from their day jobs, which include employment as electricians and cabinetmakers. And they've been coming home late to their families for more than a week-and-a-half. All of it for free.
Contributing: Wendy Leonard, Deseret Morning News; KSL-TV
E-mail: preavy@desnews.com