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Press Release
Comal Park, Canyon Lake May 29-30, 2004 Divers
recover missing man from Comal park, Canyon Lake.
Divers from the San Marcos Area Recovery Team discovered the body of
a 54 year old San Antonio man from Canyon Lake yesterday after an
extensive memorial day search at Comal Park. Ramiro Betencourt was
reported missing by family members to the Comal County Sheriff's
Department at 6:44pm on Saturday evening. Shortly afterwards SMART
was called to respond to the scene and begin the underwater search.
According to family members and witnesses, Betencourt was wading in
the water and began to walk from the park area to a small island
about 200 yards away with two of his adult sons nearby.
"The wind was very strong and the water was choppy. The direction of
the wind pushed him towards a steep drop off formed by the original
Guadalupe riverbed before the lake was flooded. When the lake water
is low, you can walk all the way out to the nearby island. In this
case the water was four to six feet deep between the main land and
the island. If you venture too far left the drop off plunges to
depths reaching 115 feet." - Dan Misiaszek
Family members heard Betencourt call out for help when he reached
the area of the drop off. Betencourt's two sons were about 20 yards
away but could not reach him before Betencourt disappeared below the
water. Divers did one search pattern on Saturday night before
calling off the search due to darkness. SMART returned on Sunday
morning and did two additional dives before locating Betencourt's
body in 24 feet of water, 150 feet from shore, resting on the steep
embankment.
"Our search patterns were based on depth on a steep cliff. We had
divers searching the shallows from 5 to 30 feet, other divers from
30 to 60 feet along the cliff, and deep divers searching from 60 to
115 feet. The deep divers required in water decompression due to the
depth and time limitations. We encountered trees and many fishing
lines in the water at depth and found a ford pick up truck at 70
feet. We have found this truck many times before and it is buried in
gravel up to the tail lights. We use the truck as a reference point
when performing our search patterns."
Members of SMART who participated in the search included Don White,
Mark Welch, Ian Rosen, John Moseley, Kathy Misiaszek and Dan
Misiaszek. They were assisted by Comal County Sheriff's Deputies,
Texas Parks and Wildlife, Game Warden's, and the US Army Corp of
Engineers who used boats and jet skis to keep boaters out of the
search area. A STAR Flight helicopter from Travis County also
participated in the search.
The last recovery SMART did at Comal Park was on February 22, 2002
when divers recovered the body of 22 year old Joseph Bustamante
after his boat capsized in high winds. Two of his friends were able
to swim to shore. Bustamante's body was found in 35 feet of water.
| Pictures from
Location - Click to enlarge |
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