The search for a 40-year-old Centennial man who is presumed drowned in Lake Granby continued Monday as Grand County officials scrambled to find dive teams to do the searching.
Jamey Sorensen somehow tumbled from a 12-foot motorboat Sunday morning, leaving two small children in the boat, said his longtime friend and employer Rick Kinning.
Fishermen in nearby boats were alerted by the screaming of the 6-year-old girl and 4-year-old boy, the only witnesses to the incident.
The children were wearing life vests, but it isn’t known if Sorensen was wearing one, Kinning said.
The fishermen called authorities, and the girl remembered her mother’s cellphone number, so she could be contacted at Kinning’s mountain home where the family was spending the weekend, he said.
Grand County must “rely on the generosity” of dive teams in other jurisdictions to respond to water emergencies, said Undersheriff Walt Eldridge. That means a delay of hours before an underwater search can begin.
Sunday the Summit County Dive Team responded, but wasn’t on the lake until after 2 p.m.
Kinning said he thought his friend went overboard about 8 a.m. The statement from the Sheriff’s Office said dispatchers received a call at 9:25 a.m. that a fisherman had fallen from his boat into the lake.
Another out-of-county dive team was lined up to pick up the search early Monday but canceled early in the day, Eldridge said. He found a team from the Denver area to continue the search Monday and today, and a third group is scheduled to search on Wednesday, he said.
In the meantime, surface patrols will continue in the area in the event the body comes to the surface, he said.
Howard Paul, president of the Colorado Search and Rescue Board, said there are probably fewer than 10 dive-rescue teams in the state, with two or three in the Denver metro area.
Staff writer Jim Kirksey can be reached at 303-820-1448 or jkirksey@denverpost.com.
