GARFIELD — A man died Tuesday while swimming in Dry Hollow Cove on Beaver Lake.
The Benton County Sheriff’s Office received the call at 5:45 p.m., said Keshia Guyll, spokeswoman. Guyll couldn’t confirm the man’s age or name Tuesday night.
A neighbor said the man was from Missouri. The Benton County Dive Team searched the area by boat. Once a diver got in the water it took less than a minute to find the man’s body, said Alan Bland, a park ranger with the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers. The man’s body was recovered near the dock. The man had been swimming off a private dock on Dean Road.
It marks the third swimming death on Beaver Lake this year, Bland said. A life vest could have kept him above water, Bland said.
“It’s very sad, preventable,” he said.
Neighbor Larry Dean said the water is about 35 feet deep off the edge of the dock. When the water was low he had underwater limbs trimmed to make the dock safe. A relative swimming there Monday night told Dean the water had a strong current. The man’s body was taken by boat to Indian Creek Park.
No further information was available Tuesday.