Body of Oologah Lake drowning victim recovered
BY RHETT MORGAN World Staff Writer
Friday, November 16, 2012
11/16/12 at 5:29 PM
OOLOGAH — The body of a man missing nearly eight days in Oologah Lake was found within hours of a search started Friday morning by a Texas-based sonar imaging team, a search team representative said.
Authorities recovered the body of an Inola man who drowned when a boat he was in capsized Nov. 8, Oologah Police Chief Novale Thompson said.
Jeremy D. Brewer, 35, never resurfaced after the 16-foot Charger bass boat he was in was swamped by a wave in high winds, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol reported.
A tournament bass fisherman who is familiar with Oologah Lake and law enforcement, Dennis Waters and his wife, Tammy Waters, of Moro, Ill., are volunteers with Texas EquuSearch, said geophysicist Ralph Baird, a senior technical adviser for EquuSearch. They began their recovery effort early Friday and within a few hours located the body of Brewer, Baird said.
“When you have a cold lake like that, the systems that these agencies use, they don’t get images off the bottom,” Baird said. “They get refractions because of the thermal inversion of the lake.
“So if they have their instruments working at the surface, they will never see a body on the bottom of the lake. The physics don’t work. So we have to put an instrument in the water that goes down deeper so the acoustics work better and they don’t get refracted. That’s what made the difference (Friday).”
The boat Brewer was in Nov. 8 was operated by Olen Brewer, 56, of Oologah and also occupied by Damen Brewer, 30, also of Oologah, according to the OHP. Family members told KJRH, channel 2 that Olen Brewer is Jeremy Brewer’s uncle and Damen Brewer’s father.
The boat was going south from the lake’s Will Rogers Cove in high winds that whipped up the waves, the OHP reported. A large wave came over the bow, causing the boat to take on water and begin to sink, troopers said.
Olen and Damen Brewer were able to reach personal floatation devices and tried unsuccessfully to get one to Jeremy Brewer, the OHP reported. The two with the devices were able to get to shore, but Jeremy Brewer went under in about 25 feet of water and never resurfaced, troopers said.
Efforts to reach a member of the victim’s family were immediately unsuccessful Friday.
Associated Images:
Jeremy D. Brewer, 35, of Inola never resurfaced after the 16-foot Charger bass boat he was in was swamped by a wave in high winds Nov. 8, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol reported. Facebook photo
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