2009
May 24: Jeanne Haylett, of Flagstaff, 40, drowned when her raft flipped on the Upper Dolores River in southwest Colorado.
June 20: Eric M. Kophs, 42, of Aurora and a Cherry Creek School District administrator, drowned after falling from a raft in the Colorado River near Kremmling.
2008
May 25: Subhash Nelakukthi, 26, of Kansas, was thrown from his raft and drowned while on a trip on the Arkansas River.
May 31: A physician from Parker, Michael Dennington, died when his raft overturned in the Gunnison River.
June 1: Christine Beltran, 29, of Santa Fe drowned in Larimer County while tubing in the Cache la Poudre River.
June 16: Richard Banks, 45, of Las Vegas drowned after falling out of a kayak on the Colorado River in Garfield County.
June 19: James Kennedy, 61, of Woodland Park died in a rafting accident on the Arkansas River in Chaffee County.
June 22: A 71-year-old, Volker Beer of Tucson, was found drowned in the Arkansas River near Buena Vista after falling from his kayak.
June 23: A 43-year-old man, Marcus Martin, of Castle Pines North, died after his raft flipped going over class III Graveyard Rapid in Brown’s Canyon in Chaffee County.
July 27: Owen Gerson, 8, of Woodstock, N.Y., drowned after his kayak tipped in rough water when his family took a commercial whitewater rafting trip in Dinosaur National Monument.
2007:
In 2007, five deaths occurred on the Arkansas River alone between Leadville and Cañon City:
May 19: Charles H. Bointy, 52, of Boulder drowned in the Royal Gorge section of the river west of Cañon City.
May 28: A 47-year-old guide in training, Brian Kirkwood, collapsed and died after nearly drowning in Browns Canyon.
June 16: Thirty-six-year-old Raquel Stiles of Omaha drowned in a dam drop south of Buena Vista known as “Silver Bullet” while rafting.
July 5: Two boats flipped in the Numbers Section of the river north of Buena Vista, and Lynn Marks, 52, of Texas, drowned.
July 6: Bea Kovich, 55, of New York, a second victim of the July 5 accident, also died of drowning.
Sources: Denver Post archives, Pueblo Chieftain, Associated Press
Compiled by the Denver Post Research Library
