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Searchers locate body of woman missing in Lake Powell

Posted at 4:16 PM, Jun 20, 2013
and last updated 2013-06-23 23:15:37-04

LAKE POWELL, Utah - On Sunday, searchers located the body of one of two women they had been searching for since a boat accident on Thursday.

Kane County officials tweeted Sunday that the body of Valerie Bradshaw was located at about 7:12 p.m. in about 340 feet of water. The body was retrieved by the Lake Powell dive team, and it is being transported to a medical investigator.

Search efforts were suspended for the night after Bradshaw was found. Search efforts for the other woman, 22-year-old Jessica Jackman, will resume Monday.

Marilyn Jackman, 57, was killed when her family's motorboat collided with a house boat on the lake Thursday.

The Utah Department of Public Safety dive team is using sonar technology to search the water. Crews from the National Park had to suspend search efforts after their robot malfunctioned Friday. They are waiting for parts that will allow them to resume the search, and those parts are expected to arrive Monday.

Kane County Sheriff's Sgt. Alan Alldredge said in a news release on Thursday that at around 8:15 a.m. Thursday, National Park Service dispatchers received reports of a boating accident at buoy 43 near Dangling Rope Marina. The accident involved a motor boat and a houseboat.

Other people on the boat were injured, and at least one was flown out via medical helicopter.

Alldredge said it appears that the driver of the boat may have been temporarily distracted by the movement of some children on the boat, and did not see the houseboat in time.

The driver tried to turn to miss the houseboat, but collided with the front corner, causing the motor boat to overturn and all thirteen people on the boat to be thrown out.

The National Park Service, Utah State Parks and Kane County Sheriff's Office are working together on the rescue attempt and on the investigation of the accident.

An equipment malfunction reportedly forced rescue crews to halt their search efforts of the 400-foot deep water on Friday, but they will likely resume searching on Saturday. The area is very remote and crews will need sonar equipment shipped in from Salt Lake City.

Related story: Community remembers victims in Lake Powell boating accident