A 21-year-old Valley City, N.D., woman is missing and believed drowned after she went swimming off a pontoon boat in Lake Ashtabula early this morning.
An extensive search took place 4 miles south of Sibley, N.D., roughly the halfway point between Sibley and the Baldhill Dam.
Andrea Rose Arbuckle was reported missing about 1:40 a.m. Friday, according to the Barnes County (N.D.) Sheriff's Department.
Reporters and photographers were not being allowed near the search site, however, emergency personnel appeared to be concentrating their efforts near the middle of the lake.
Pete Fendt, president of Valley Water Rescue, said he and his fellow divers arrived at the scene to aid in the search about 10 a.m.Friday.
ADVERTISEMENT
By 2:30 p.m., Valley Water Rescue had rotated two-person dive crews in about 10 shifts to scour the bottom of the reservoir lake, Fendt said.
Fendt said a helicopter and several boats had searched for Arbuckle in the lake and along its banks.
He said the North Dakota Game and Fish Department was bringing in side-scanning sonar equipment to the site to examine the lake bottom.
The Fargo-Moorhead-based Valley Water Rescue team joined Barnes County deputies, the Valley City Rescue Team, National Guard soldiers and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers personnel in the search.
"They had boats all over the place," Fendt said.
Fendt said there is some current in lake, and that there's "quite a variety of depth" as the old riverbed has snaking oxbows similar to the Red River.
Still, if the woman has drowned, Fendt said her body probably would not have gone far.
Fendt said the dive crews were shown the area where the pontoon boat had been.
ADVERTISEMENT
"We're pretty confident we're in the close area," he said.
Fendt said Arbuckle had not been found as darnkess fell.
He said divers would return to the lake Saturday morning. The first task, he said, will be to free a sonar device that had become stuck in the lake bottom. After that, divers will be on standby in case they are needed, said Fendt.
Lake Ashtabula is about 12 miles northwest of Valley City. It is formed by the Baldhill Dam as part of the Sheyenne River.
WDAY reporter Al Aamodt contributed to this report.
