Two men who went missing under the ice of Wyoming’s Keyhole Reservoir on Thursday while attempting to assist a rescue mission have been found deceased, according to the Crook County Sheriff’s office.
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families and the Pine Haven community,” the Crook County Sheriff’s Office said in a Sunday statement.
A man had fallen into the ice on Keyhole Reservoir while on a UTV Thursday, but he made it out of the water alive.
During that time, however, three more “local citizens” drove onto the ice in another UTV and fell through the ice themselves. One of the three people was found alive and taken by ambulance to the Campbell County Memorial Hospital, along with the original man who had made it out of the ice.
But the remaining two were not found that day. Search efforts were postponed to Friday morning when dangerous weather conditions set in Thursday.
The mission was reclassified from a “rescue” to a “recovery” mission at 11 a.m. Friday, the statement says.
In search and rescue terminology, a “recovery” mission refers to a search for a deceased person, or people.
Authorities continued recovery efforts on Sunday. Both men were found at about 4 p.m.
“The Crook County Sheriff’s Office would like to thank everyone for their efforts and support,” the statement reads. “It was an extremely difficult mission.”
On Friday, search personnel used ice rescue units along “a substantial area of open water,” the sheriff’s office had reported.
