The RCMP E Division Underwater Recovery Team arrived to begin searching Lake Osoyoos Saturday for a 41-year-old man who went missing Monday and is presumed dead. The drowned man was identified by friends as Tom Dennehy, who was described as a “pillar” of his community in Oliver. The man was playing fetch with his two dogs in the water outside a boat when he noticed one of them needed help. “He threw a flip-flop so far that the dog couldn’t find it. He went out to help his dog actually find the flip flop, and it was at that point that it appears the dog became distressed and climbed on the person’s back,” Sgt. Jason Baida, Area Commander for the Osoyoos RCMP Detachment said. “And at that point, it looks like the guy couldn’t stay above the water with a dog on his back.” While local police searched the lake extensively after the report was first reported, to date they have had no luck locating him. “That’s why the underwater recovery team is here to help with that,” Bayda said. “We’re going to work as hard as we can with the locations that witnesses have given us, and we’re really hoping that we can locate him today and bring some closure to the family.” The team will focus on an area in which they have located the body, which is about 500 square meters. A drop sonar device is used, which sits on a tripod and descends to the bottom of the lake. “Basically it will get a perimeter image of the area and any objects will reflect and provide them the image back to the boat in real time,” Bayda said. “If they see a body down there, it will reflect back to them. And they’ll locate that location, after which they’ll dive and recover.” The underwater recovery team currently has 24 members across the province who work for the RCMP in other roles alongside their dive team work. Bayda said members will be invited and those available will travel to form a team and work together. “We can say we’d like to make sure we find them, stay here until we find this person. But unfortunately, this is not always the case,” he added. “We’re going to do an extensive search, we’re going to do everything we can to locate the person. Sometimes it’s just not meant to be, but they’re going to work extremely hard.” RCMP are looking down 130 feet to find the body. “A body 130 feet deep in this lake will stay down for a significant amount of time.” The tragedy of the situation has RCMP asking people to be careful when out on the lake and practice proper water safety. “We always promote wearing a life jacket when you’re on a boat, we recognize that it’s a situation where a person is swimming out of their boat and we don’t always wear a life jacket when we swim, especially if we’re skilled swimmers,” Bayda said. “Whether we’re good swimmers or not, if we’re out with the dog, just make sure you’re wearing your life jacket in case the dog climbs on you. When you’re in a boat, wear your life jackets.”
