Man who fell off float in Winchester lake found dead 13 feet below surface
WINCHESTER -- The search for a missing man in a Winchester lake ended Tuesday with divers finding him dead 13 feet below the surface.
Massachusetts State Police said 52-year-old Alford Garcia of Lynn fell off an inflatable float in an unsupervised part of the water off Shannon Beach just before 6 p.m. Monday.
"Mr. Garcia attempted to make it back to shore, became tired and began to struggle in the water, and then went beneath the water. Witnesses attempted to rescue Mr. Garcia but were not able to locate him," State Police spokesman Dave Procopio said in a statement.
State and local police searched Upper Mystic Lake for several hours Monday and again on Tuesday morning before finding Garcia's body with a side-scan sonar device just after 9 a.m.
"The sonar detected an image at a depth of about 13 feet in an area with practically zero visibility to the human eye. Divers then dove onto the target image, determined it was Mr. Garcia's body, and recovered him," Procopio said.
State Police said it appears to be a drowning but the medical examiner will conduct an autopsy to determine the official cause of death.
Shannon Beach was fully open Tuesday afternoon.
