Divers recover bodies of two missing men from Lake Perris

Witness said one man was tubing behind boat and fell into the water, then the other jumped in to save him.

The bodies of two men who went missing in the water of Lake Perris were found Thursday afternoon, the California state parks department confirmed.

Riverside County sheriff’s officials recovered the first body at 1 p.m. and the second three hours later.

Both bodies were discovered by the sheriff department’s dive team, according to an agency spokesperson.

The identities of the two men were not immediately disclosed, but they were Los Angeles County residents in their mid-40s, said Supt. John Rowe of the California Department of Parks and Recreation’s Inland Empire Perris Sector.

“Both men were not wearing life jackets,” Rowe wrote in an emailed statement to The Times.

Three park officers and a lifeguard responded to a 911 call at the lake at 4:08 p.m. Wednesday, authorities said.

The initial reports were of a vessel involved in an accident near the open boating zone just north of Alessandro Island.

A witness told park officials that one of the men was tubing behind a boat and fell into the lake. The second man then jumped into the water to try to save the swimmer.

Both individuals struggled in the water before slipping below the surface, authorities said.

The parks department enlisted the aid of the Riverside County sheriff ’s dive team Wednesday evening, said Sgt. Wenndy Brito-Gonzalez, a sheriff ’s spokesperson.

The freshwater lake is about three miles long and two miles wide and is about 65 miles southeast of Los Angeles. The surrounding state recreation area encompasses 8,200 acres.

Rowe said deaths have occurred with some frequency at Lake Perris.

“On average, Lake Perris has two to six fatalities each year, and most are aquatic-related,” he said, noting that a 25-year-old woman drowned in the lake on July 23.

He said the last vessel-related fatality occurred in 2022. He said the victim drowned while on his floating tube.

The lake’s level had been lowered over the summer to provide water for other areas, according to the California Department of Water Resources.

The agency had advised visitors to watch for potential hazards.