UPDATE: Woman missing at Beaver Lake identified

Personnel in an Arkansas Game & Fish Commission boat (center) and officials from other agencies search Beaver Lake on Wednesday for a missing woman near the Larue community east of Rogers.
Personnel in an Arkansas Game & Fish Commission boat (center) and officials from other agencies search Beaver Lake on Wednesday for a missing woman near the Larue community east of Rogers.

12:07 p.m. Friday update

The missing woman is Stacey Hernandez, 21, of Rogers, said Keshia Guyll, spokeswoman for the Benton County Sheriff's Office.

Original Story

The search for a 21-year-old woman who reportedly drowned on Beaver Lake Tuesday continued Thursday.

The woman was from Rogers, said Keshia Guyll, spokeswoman for the Benton County Sheriff's Office. The department hasn't released the woman's name because of notification issues, Guyll said.

It was the first full-day search. The initial 911 call came in at 4 p.m. Tuesday and was called off at 9 p.m. Searchers headed out on the lake at 7 a.m. Wednesday but severe weather forced them off the lake at 4 p.m.

The search group was smaller Thursday, said Capt. Lynn Hahn, the Sheriff's Office captain leading the recovery. A Mennonite team headed to Carroll County to help with storm damage there but the group was joined by the Johnson County dive team.

To search a grid pattern the team needs daylight, Hahn said. They use landmarks to keep the grid straight.

They were searching between a sandbar and the shore and in the deep channel that once held the White River. That area is 130 feet deep, Hahn said.

No divers had been in the water by late Thursday afternoon.

The pressure of diving that deep means a short stay on the bottom for the diver and the men would be sent in teams. Once a diver goes down that man will go home and be out of the rotation for the next 24 hours, Hahn said. There were three divers on hand Thursday.

The team has had a few false positives, he said, but double checks each possibility with more scans.

The search is complicated by submerged obstacles and the span of the search area, said Alan Bland, ranger with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Searching a grid in the water is slow work. Getting the cable hung up in submerged trees could cost a team an expensive piece of sonar equipment, Bland said. One person drives the boat, another watches the screen.

"If you see trees coming you've got to reel it up real fast," he said.

Once a team has run an area they will go to shore and review the recorded data to see if there is anything they've missed. There are trees, stumps, even old structures, on the bottom of the lake, Bland said.

Deeper water means sonar operators have to send equipment lower to get a better image of the lake. Bland estimated the equipment is being towed at a depth of 70 to 80 feet deep in the river channel.

The coves are full of trees, but the channel is clearer, Hahn said.

The search area is about a quarter-mile square, Bland said.

The family was renting a cabin on the lake when five from the group went out on the lake in a paddle boat and canoe. The innocent fun of spring break turned tragic when the boats capsized and the group scattered.

The missing woman didn't have a life jacket. In the commotion no one saw her go under, creating the large search area. The team's resolve is good, Bland said.

"They're going to search every inch of it," he said.

As long as there is a team the search will continue, Hahn said. Their goal was to find the missing woman Thursday. He hopes to have the full group out on the water over the weekend. There's no current at the bottom of the lake, and wherever the woman landed she will not have moved, Hahn said.

The Johnson County dive team, Rocky Branch Fire Department, Benton County Emergency Management mobile command unit, American Red Cross, Arkansas Game & Fish, Benton County Dive Team and Benton County Sheriff's Office are involved in the search.

Many of those people, like the dive teams, are volunteers, Bland said. Volunteers have jobs and as much as they want to bring closure to the family, the search may have to be halted before they find the body.

There have been at least four other instances on Beaver Lake, all where a person drowned in deep water, where the body has never been recovered, Bland said.

The search depends on the resources available, Hahn said. If the woman isn't found the Benton County Sheriff's Office will continue to do sweeps of the area in an effort to bring closure to the family.

"It'll just be us," he said.

NW News on 03/27/2015

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