PINEDALE, Wyo. — According to a press release from the Sublette County Sheriff’s Office, after two weeks of active search for the missing Pinedale man, Rick De Ruiter Zylker, Tip Top Search and Rescue (TTSAR) has been unsuccessful in recovering the body.
Zylker was last seen in the early afternoon of Wednesday, Aug. 24 swimming amongst friends and co-workers in Fremont Lake when he went underwater, never to resurface.
According to Administrative Sergeant Travis Bingham, teams have suspended efforts for a few days to regroup and give volunteers time at home to “catch up on their lives.” Plans are to return in a week or two to resume search efforts with the remote-operated vehicle (ROV).
After speaking with family members, TTSAR and the Sublette County Sheriff’s Office are looking into a new technology called LIDAR, used for underwater mapping. The application has yet to be used for drowning recovery; however, it utilizes unmanned drones which can map bodies of water from above or below the water’s surface.
After speaking with family members, we are also looking into a new technology called LIDAR ( Light Detection and Ranging) is used for underwater mapping. The application has yet to be used for drowning recovery; however, it utilizes unmanned drones which can map bodies of water from above or below the water’s surface. Prior to this incident TTSAR applied for and received a grant to update the “tow-fish” and side-scan equipment on their boat as they can no longer get it serviced and parts are unavailable. Due to supply chain issues, they don’t know if they will receive this new equipment before Fremont Lake ices over for the winter.
While TTSAR can’t definitively say Zylker’s body will never return to the surface on its own, the likelihood of this occurring at the depth, pressures at that depth, and temperatures at that depth in Fremont Lake is very unlikely. They were able to drop a temperature probe into the lake to record temperatures at different depths. At the surface, temperatures ranged from 65 to 69 F. At twenty feet below the surface, the temperature gradually decreases to around 58 F, below 40 feet the temperature drops significantly, and at 100 feet the temperature is 35 F. In the area crews searched, it is minimal to no underwater current evident by lack of silt accumulation, ambient light disappears around 170 feet below the surface, and pressures at 250 feet reach 750,000 Pascal or 110 psi.
