The Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office has released the name of the victim in a boating accident on Flaming Gorge over the weekend. 48-year-old Lance Heninger of North Ogden drowned after a mishap occurred about 3 ½ miles southeast of Buckboard Marina. According to Sheriff Mike Lowell, Heninger and two companions were competing in the Ducks Unlimited Fishing Derby on Saturday and had last been seen fishing in the Big Bend area. “When the men had not returned to a residence in Manila as planned by late
Saturday night
, concerned family and friends checked the parking lot at Buckboard and there found their pickup and empty boat trailer,” shares the announcement. “It was then,
around midnight
, that the Sheriff’s Office was notified.” Members of the Sheriff’s Office Marine Unit commenced a search aboard their patrol boat which is kept at the Buckboard Marina. The deputies found one of the surviving men
at about 1:30am
on the east shore and the second man about 15 minutes later still in the water. Both men were taken to Memorial Hospital in Rock Springs where they were treated and released. The men told deputies that
on Saturday at about 4:00pm
the wind picked up violently, two waves swamped the boat, and all three went into the water. Both survivors were wearing life jackets and Heninger was not. The search party found Heninger’s body in a cove along the Gorge’s east bank
at about 4:00am
. The Sheriff’s Office investigation is ongoing.
