Member Of Dive Team Drowns Saving Own Sons

Associated Press

5:53 a.m. MDT, July 20, 2009

BOULDER, Utah—

A St. George man drowned while trying to aid his two young sons, who were struggling to stay afloat in a cold mountain lake. The Garfield County Sheriff's office says 32-year-old Scott Pedersen went under Saturday as other family members managed to pluck the boys out of the water on a paddle boat. Pedersen was a member of the Washington County search and rescue dive team, which found his body about seven hours later in murky Upper Barker Lake on Boulder Mountain. His body was taken to Richfield for an autopsy.

Sheriff's deputy Kevin Moore attributed Pedersen's death to a tangle of weeds and the lake's temperatures, which is around 54 degrees at the surface but much cooler a few feet deeper.

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