MONTE NE — A 39-year-old Rogers woman drowned Saturday morning in Beaver Lake off Monte Ne Road in Benton County.
In Washington County, crews searched for a missing man who went under water Saturday afternoon.
Kimberlee Weaber died near Monte Ne while trying to rescue her two sons who were struggling in water 30 to 40 feet offshore, according to Sgt. Dale Denver with the Benton County Sheriff’s Office. The two boys, about 10 and 12 years old, were taken to Mercy Medical Center in Rogers for treatment.
Weaber swam to the boys and tried to help them back to shore when she went under, Denver said. Lowell Fire Department Capt. Nolan Jones happened to be walking nearby and heard the family screaming for help. He assisted one of the boys swim to shore but said he never saw the mother.
Emergency crews arrived at 9:35 a.m. and were searching for Weaber by 10 a.m., Denver said. Her body was found in 5 feet of water about two hours later.
At least three agencies searched the lake near the U.S. 412 bridge near Sonora in Washington County for a 34-year-old man suspected of drowning.
Emergency personnel from Washington and Benton counties, along with the Army Corps of Engineers, searched for the man by boat.
According to Sgt. Lynn Morgan of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, the man was on a boat with his family. He reportedly went swimming and never resurfaced.
The man was reported missing about 2 p.m. As of 4 p.m. Saturday, he hadn’t been found.
His identity wasn’t released as of deadline Saturday and no additional information was available.
A Facebook page for Kimberlee Weaber, 39, in Rogers says she graduated from Greenwood High School in 1992 and is from Sallisaw, Okla. Friends and family were posting sympathetic messages Saturday afternoon.
The drowning is the fourth this year in Beaver Lake, Denver said. He said distance and depth can be deceiving in open water.
“You look across to the other side and you think, ‘It’s not that far, I can swim that,’” he said. “But it’s a lot farther than you think.”
He said it’s also hard to gauge depth when swimming in murky lake water. The visibility at Beaver Lake on Saturday was only 2 feet, he said.
“The one thing I always say is we’ve never spent days on end looking for somebody that had a life jacket on,” Denver said.
Tom Jenkins, Rogers Fire chief, said drowning deaths have been “way too frequent this year.” He advocated families be aware of everyone’s swimming abilities, wear a life jacket and stay a safe distance from the shore.
Kate Ward contributed to this report.